Bush nominates conservative judge on heels of Miers withdrawal

WASHINGTON – Less than a week after his first pick for the Supreme Court was drummed out of the running by conservative protests, Bush has nominated a far-right conservative to the bench.
LGBT advocacy groups immediately blasted Bush's Oct. 31 announcement that U.S. Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito is his pick to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
"President Bush capitulated to the howling from the extreme, evangelical right and threw them red meat in the form of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "The country will now be put through a wrenching, divisive and damaging confirmation process. One more travesty inflicted on this nation by the president and his right wing allies."
"President Bush chose to placate the far right instead of appealing to the fair-minded values of the American people," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "But every American should have a voice in the nomination. As the Senate does its constitutional duty to consider Judge Alito's record, we must all voice our concerns."
So far right-wing conservatives, including The American Family Association, a group hostile to LGBT families and a woman's right to choose, have greeted Alito's nomination warmly.
"Mr. Bush has nominated to the High Court a man of unquestioned commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law," Brian Fahling, American Family Association Center for Law & Policy senior trial attorney. "I thought it would be difficult to find the intellectual equal of Justice Roberts, but Mr. Bush has found him in Judge Alito."
If confirmed, Alito, who is often referred to as "Scalito" for his judicial similarities to Supreme Court Justice and LGBT equality foe Antonin Scalia, likely would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the ruling that legalized a woman's right to an abortion. Alito has a long anti-choice record.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) called Alito's nomination "needlessly provocative."
"The president has chosen to reward one faction of his party, at the risk of dividing the country," said Leahy, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush's first pick, Harriet Miers, was called "unfortunate" and "unqualified" by many right-wing supporters of the president. Alito's nomination followed quickly on the heels of her withdrawal.
"Harriet Miers faced right-wing criticism on social issues," said Lambda Legal Education and Public Affairs Director Michael Adams. "But what made her especially vulnerable was not principally that, but was the combination of her lack of judicial experience and her extraordinarily close connection to President Bush, which led to the repeated suggestions that she was nominated based on 'cronyism' rather than her qualifications. Would she have been an independent and effective jurist? We'll never know."
"Alito is the far right's choice," said Solmonese. "His record on Congress's power to protect Americans and a woman's right to choose give us a level of understanding as to why he was the far right's choice. Our Constitution does not belong to one narrow ideology. It belongs to all of us."