What really matters are Samuel Alito's attitudes about executive authority, the right to privacy, standing Supreme Court precedent, and women's fundamental rights over their own bodies.

But this puff piece appearing this morning in the AP looks at other things.

His music tastes tend toward Beethoven and Bruce Springsteen but "I force him to listen to Scarlatti and Bach," Mrs. Alito said in a Washington Post interview published Monday.

Wow, he listens to a Democrat musician. He can't be that radical, can he? He's practically a librul! (Note: A search on the Washington Post site revealed only this copy of the same AP wire story.)

He once attended a ska festival — that's rock music, with a touch of reggae and horns.

A ska concert?! Wow! He's a real musical adventurer. He couldn't be a racist now, could he?

"He's a great marksman — he can do double clays," she says, meaning he can hit two clay pigeon targets thrown simultaneously into the air before either hits the ground.

His talent with a shotgun is all some people need to know about Alito. For me, it's that he can make a decent salmon paté. Who gives a crap that he thinks the police without a warrant can strip-search 10-year-old girls in their own homes?

Most Americans seem to believe that Alito won't overturn Roe.

The survey also found that most Americans expect Alito, if confirmed, would not vote to strike down Roe v. Wade. In the weeks since he was appointed by Bush, abortion rights advocates have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to Alito. They fear he may be the fifth and decisive vote on the court to overturn Roe--a decision that would instantly inflame national debate over an issue that already is one of the most divisive in American politics.

Instead, the survey suggests that the public expects Alito to follow a middle course on the court.

According to the poll, 38 percent predict Alito will vote on abortion issues in ways that do not significantly alter Roe. Another 26 percent said they expect Alito to favor greater restrictions on abortion but not to strike down the ruling. Slightly fewer than one in five--18 percent--say they believe he would vote to overturn the decision.

But they don't know Alito like Alito knows Alito. And they don't know Alito like the radical right conservatives know Alito.

Lusk warned adversaries: "My friends, don't fool with the church because the church has buried a million critics. And those the church has not buried, the church has made funeral arrangement for."

Lusk, a Bush supporter whose organization has received more than $1 million in federal grants under the administration's Faith Based Initiative, said, "From all I believe, this is the right thing to do," referring to his central role in "Justice Sunday III." "I believe this is what Jesus would have me do."

I wonder if the voice in his head told this Jesus insider which critics to bury, too.

But it seems Alito has been covering his tracks, including lawyerly statements of having no recollection that he bragged of belonging to the racist Concerned Alumni of Princeton. No, he's just a regular guy who once took dance lessons.

Of course, when we look at the actual record, which is in print and undisputed, there's more to be concerned about. That and how Alito so admires Robert Bork.

"I think he was one of the most outstanding nominees of this century," Alito told Michael Aron of NJN News's "Front Page New Jersey" in a little-noticed 1988 interview. "He is a man of unequaled ability, understanding of constitutional history, someone who had thought deeply throughout his entire life about constitutional issues and about the Supreme Court and the role it ought to play in American society."

How reassuring.

There's no doubt conservatives longing for a more powerful, more authoritarian government are drooling over Alito. All you have to do is look at random conservative blogs to see the near-hysterical complaints that we evil libruls are picking on poor Sammy. Maybe they long for the day when their government has the power to just silence dissent and libruls and non-Christianists must wear the Star of David sewn onto our clothing. Or just lock us all up in torture camps. You know, so they can demonstrate their "moral values" over all of us.

Or maybe they're really the scared little boys they seem to be, and really are afraid that libruls, who have no real power and make a whole lot less money than conservatives, are the real threat to democracy, not the corporate favor boys running the culture of corruption in DC, not the people sending spies to listen to your phone calls and read your emails, not the pork feeders who are running up the budget deficit into the stratosphere, not the big thinkers who consider government regulation of toxic chemicals dumped into drinking water onerous, but think government control of women's bodies is just part of the natural order of things....

Silly me for thinking democracy is for Americans, too.

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