Alito: Good as Gold, Baby

Ace says Dianne Feinstein (D - Disneyland) has basically conceded there won't be an Alito filibuster, and he's had the votes to get through the Senate since day one. Go read it, because it's one paragraph after another of utterly crushing Dem hopes. Here's my personal favorite line:

"Democrats said the lesson of the Alito hearings was that this White House could put on the bench almost any qualified candidate, even one whom Democrats consider to be ideologically out of step with the country."

I like that one because rabid-insane Dems are hardly the authority on who is or is not out of step, and because it seems to come as a genuine shock to them that a President should get to pick the judges he was elected to pick.

The wife points out that this is also a refutation of the Meirs defenders (e.g. Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved) who argued that Bush couldn't possibly get an ideologue with a proven track record on the Court, so Meirs was the best we could expect. Those conservatives who, during the Meirs nomination, were spoiling for a fight saw the Meirs nomination as a total cave-in. But note that the Alito supporters also didn't get a fight. This whole process was a cake-walk. It seems that Roberts and Alito have amply demonstrated that they learned the lesson of the Bork nomination: don't answer any questions, and you won't have any problems.

Update: Captain Ed notes that even the L.A. Times and Washington Post have thrown in the towel, both on "elections have consequences" grounds. From the Times:

"...there are no legitimate grounds to entertain a filibuster of this nominee, or to be overly shocked that he is the sort of justice Bush would select. Bush never made any secret of his desire to put conservative jurists on the highest court, and he was elected to the presidency twice."

Captain Ed also refers to Dianne Feinstein as "one of the few Judiciary Democrats to not embarrass herself during the hearings." I didn't get to see the video (hey, some of us have to work for a living), but Michelle Malkin gives me enough evidence to think he's right on:

"Maryanne Trump Barry [is] a Clinton appointee who gave a glowing endorsement of her colleague, Sam Alito, earlier today, along with six other judges from the appeals court who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Alito. Chuck Schumer walked out before the judges started to speak. Teddy Kennedy showed up late, stayed for 10 minutes, then left. Pat Leahy put on a dour face for a short time, and also bailed. Dianne Feinstein, to her credit, remained for the duration and asked respectful questions."