It might be worth taking a moment to step back from the judicial philosophy of Samuel Alito and how he seems to view U.S. citizens as serfs with no rights, and take a look at the bigger picture -- the picture where we have a president whose policies have run our country, which was riding high in 2000, right into an economic ditch, whose simplistic views of the world have led to thousands of casualties of our brave soldiers in a war based on lies, whose staff is under the cloud of possible indictment, if not indicted already, for lying under oath and playing fast and loose with national security secrets....

...who's presidency is viewed now by a majority of the public as a failure (according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll), who's now considered incapable of running the government effectively, who's expected by most Americans to be a failure over the next three years....

...this is the president who tries to radicalize the Supreme Court and undo 70 years of progress in this country, and take the Court away from what the public wants?

The same poll (which took place just before Bush announced the Alito nomination) asked what kind of person Bush should nominate....

Only 21 percent said nominating a conservative was essential.

Only 16 percent said overturning Roe is essential (and only 16 percent more said it's even a good idea).

And yet he and his Republican cohorts look to push through this radical judge, against the public will. Why? To pander to their radical right-wing base, where a small but loud minority has proven to be the squeakiest wheel and getting all the political grease. They said "no" to Harriet Miers, and so Bush withdrew Miers.

Now they love Alito. They see him as the tool to impose their will on the rest of Americans. What does this mean in practical terms? Given Alito's views that:

• Women have no constitutional right to our own bodies,
• There is no right to privacy,
• The government should have unrestricted police powers over citizens,
• Discrimination should not be prosecuted,
• Congress cannot restrict sale of machine guns (real machine guns, like you see in war and gangster movies),
• and Supreme Court precedent means nothing...

You can expect everything to change.

So why should we trust a president who has really screwed everything else up so badly? Should he get away with such a cynical appointment? Should he be rewarded for pandering to the radicals in his party instead of representing and protecting the people of the United States?

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