Alito: Trick or Treat?

The media and the blogsphere is abuzz with the nomination this morning of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Already, those on the left are saying that Bush caved in to the far right and gave them a Scalia-clone. Listen to what Bull Moose says:

The Alito nomination is evidence that Mr. Rove is once again riding high in the saddle. The Rovian solution to all of the Administration woes is a to give a hot-button treat to the base and attempt to trick the Democrats into alienating swing traditionalist values voters. Meanwhile, folks will ask, "Scooter who?".

The politics of polarization has been the governing philosophy of the Bushies. It got them re-elected and it is the only way they know to govern. With this understanding, the Alito nomination makes complete sense.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Libby, the President has now found a safe port in a storm. That may seem to contradict the fact that we are entering the ultimate confrontation in Washington. To the contrary, this is the type of chaos in which the Bushies thrive.

But is Alito really the far right's dream candidate? Well, I don't have time to go in detail, but Jazz Shaw and Ann Althouse decided to actually look at his records and the picture that emerges is a conservative, yes, but hardly the predictable associate justice that Scalia is and at least at the surface, sure isn't deserving of the title "Scalito."

I'm not willing to jump on board and say "confirm him now" but I think I see something that says, this guy is way off field. Of course, we need to have the hearings to get a good picture of this nominee. However, I wish both left and right would not jump to a conclusion on someone without even looking at the person's whole record.