As the Senate debates Alito

C-SPAN yesterday had hours of senators explaining why they would be voting for or against confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court. I haven't bothered updating the vote tally since Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NB) is still the only Democrat to be voting for Alito and no Republican senator is voting against his nomination. Today we have a couple articles about the political considerations at play.

In What price Alito?, Bob Novak examines how a vote against Alito may affect reelection propects for senators in states President Bush carried in 2004.

The Wall Street Journal deitorial page declares that the confirmation of both Chief Justice John Roberts and Judge Alito marks the most important domestic success for President Bush since his 2003 tax cuts. I would say Roberts and Alito are arguably much more important than tax cuts since the cuts have expiration dates.