Why Alito is a triumph for the Bush presidency

By Aussiegirl

Ben Shapiro weighs in with his thoughts on Alito's superb qualifications. And you know what? He just looks like a nice guy. What's not to like? Unlike Miers he is already impressing senators in his initial meetings, even moderate democrats. You never lose by playing to your own strengths and not pandering.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Judge Alito: President Bush's triumph by Ben Shapiro

All it took was one brilliant stroke for President Bush to win back his base, shift the news focus and restore hope to his beleaguered presidency. That stroke was Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, whom President Bush nominated to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court.

Alito is the judge true constitutionalists have been waiting for. He is no enigma. He reads the Constitution as it was meant when it was written, and he is not afraid to challenge precedent. Alito realizes that deference to the Constitution and, absent a relevant provision of the Constitution, deference to legislatures both outweigh deference to past Supreme Court decisions. Alito is the judge we were promised by President Bush in his last presidential campaign; he is truly in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

His credentials are impeccable: the Ivy League education (Princeton University and Yale Law School), the governmental experience (assistant to the solicitor general, deputy assistant attorney general), the time on the bench (15 years on the Third Circuit). And he's only 55.