When the Judiciary Committee finished slanderingquestioning Justice Alito it convened for an executive session and then returned to hear testimony from other witnesses – many of them fellow judges significantly more liberal than Sam Alito – testify on behalf of their colleague. At least, some of the Committee returned. Diane Feinstein was the only Democrat in attendance once the cameras were pointed toward the witnesses. Given the time her missing cohorts spent regurgitating MoveOn and NARAL accusations (see post below), one might surmise that the Democratic senators were tidying up in the Senate washroom, or visiting the dry-cleaners. Or perhaps trying to figure out how they were going to explain this fiasco to George Soros.

You’d think, however, as John Hinderaker at Powerline pointed out, that they’d take advantage or their last, best opportunity to really find out what kind of judge Alito might be.

This is truly extraordinary. Extraordinary that Judge Alito’s colleagues have turned out to defend him against the Democrats’ smears; extraordinary that the Democrats themselves couldn’t be bothered to stick around to hear what this distinguished group of judges had to say. After all, if the Democrats were actually interested in what kind of judge Sam Alito is, these are precisely the witnesses who could tell them. If the Democrats really thought that Alito’s judicial opinions reflect poorly on him, these are exactly the people who could answer their questions, and, if they are correct, confirm their fears. But the Democrats apparently knew that wasn’t going to happen. The only conclusion one can draw is that the Democrats knew they were smearing a fine man and a fine judge. But the fact that they didn’t even have the decency or respect to stay and listen to Alito’s colleagues is disgusting.

Call me paranoid, but I’m struck by the fact that none of the news services seem to have taken a picture of the Senate panel, denuded of Democrats during the judges’ testimony. When Alito was testifying, there were countless shots of Kennedy, Schumer, Leahy, et al.; now, mysteriously, there are no pictures of the Senators.

On a related note, Sisyphus at Nihilist in Golf Pants has his final verbosity index scorecard, compiled from hearing transcripts published in the Washington Post, showing how many words each Committee member used in “questioning” Justice Alito and comparing it to the number of words the nominee used to respond. Check it out.

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Laura Ingraham was asking callers this morning to offer one-word descriptions of the performance of the Judiciary Committee Democrats during the Alito hearings. “Atrocious,” “disgusting” and “vile” were offered, along with a word that I thought was particularly apt, though Laura wasn’t sure what it meant: execrable.

The word that popped into my head, however, was “bulimic”. Sure, “vomitous” would work nearly as well, but bulimic is the choice because all of the wretched retching by Teddy “Mr. Creosote” Kennedy, Up-Chuck Schumer, Blow Biden, et al, was entirely self-induced. Gorged by the cheers (and money) of their far-left masters, bloated by the rhetoric and war chants leading up to the hearings predicting a beating for the nominee, burping the emetic threat of a fili-gut-buster, they sought to poke a finger in the eye of the Bush administration and ended up sticking it down their own throats instead.

Not only that, but they threw everything they had at Justice Alito and it had all the stopping power of a blueberry thrown against a locomotive. Yeah, it will leave a stain, but mostly on their own shoes. This was supposed to be the battle to show the administration that it couldn’t get a conservative, white male, pro-life nominee past the Watchdogs of (In)Decency and it failed. It does make you wonder what they can possibly do if there’s another SCOTUS vacancy in the next year and a conservative, pro-life black woman is nominated. You’d like to think that an important lesson has been learned, but you also know how it is with dogs returning to their vomit.

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Reading and listening to the speechifying, as opposed to actual questioning, being conducted by Senators Kennedy, Biden, Durbin, Leahy, Feinstein, Feingold and others — and Justice Alito’s largely stoic response — puts me in mind of some of the (regrettable) drinking games from my college days.

The point of games like Buzzz, Indian and Cardinal Puff were to give the contestants an apparently easy task to do or repeat, but complicate it with innumerable distractions or bizarre behavior in order to cause a slip. That has to be the explanation for the embarrassing behavior of these senators as they ramble, ramble, drone, hem and haw their way through their “questions” as if this was billable time for them. They’re apparently hoping to so benumb the nominee that he might lose his focus and slip with a comment (such as “are you on drugs?”) that they can exploit. It’s a desperate strategy that shows how weak their position must be; certainly if they had a valid legal point or argument they’d have brought it to the fore by now — if not to dismantle the nominee, at least for the sake of their own credibility.

Instead of a debate this has turned into a test of endurance which Justice Alito should be able to weather as long as his ears don’t begin to bleed. Meanwhile the Kenneday, et al, are coming across like lubricated frat boys trying to outdo each other in coming up with hazing tactics. Meanwhile Sam Alito, the supposed right wing freak, is looking as sober as — well, as a judge.

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