Yet another reason I rather would have seen Janice Rogers Brown in that seat. She may not get herself confirmed, but she’s going to force the debate…

Sen. Specter asked him immediately on day one about his view of stare decisis. Alito left no question that he would rather die a horrible death than read the constitution as written and form an opinion. I’m paraphrasing, but: “There’s no such thing as super-precedent or super-duper-precedent, but it would require an act of God to make me read the law instead of relying on prior precedent” is close enough to what he said to make the point.

Fast forward three days. Sen. Schumer asks what amounts to the second question (with three days of speeches intervening). Again, paraphrasing: “Does the commerce clause mean the Federal government owns your sorry butt, or does it mean we can only regulate commerce that actually crosses state lines?” He, of course, left the “as the plain English reading of the Constitution would suggest” part out of the question.

Alito: I am incapable of forming my own opinion, so I would rely on the precedent that the former is correct.

Schumer: Good. I’m glad you feel that Congress is all-powerful, subject only to special interests. But, I’m still PO’d that you think the President has that same power over the lives of the world’s uneducated masses.

I may not have gotten all the quotes correct, but you get the idea.

Samuel Alito’s time before the Senate Judiciary Comittee has come to an end, and as both CNN and ABC recognize, it seems clear that he will be confirmed when the full Senate votes at the end of the month. The Washington Post made this observation ……