Sidestepping punches, Alito sails toward vote
Confirmation seen likely
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | January 13, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/01/13/sidestepping_punches_alito_sails_toward_vote/WASHINGTON -- In their last chance to knock his nomination off balance, Senate Democrats sharply questioned Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. again yesterday, grilling him on whether he favors an overly powerful presidency and whether he would overturn Roe v. Wade if he became a justice on the high court.
But Alito calmly slipped the rhetorical punches, and his four-day testimony ended with few doubts about his likely confirmation.
As his 18 hours of questioning before the committee wound down, Alito ducked Democrats' queries on abortion, declining to take a clear stand. He also insisted that previous statements in which he endorsed a powerful presidency wouldn't keep him from addressing related issues on their merits alone, but he said he wouldn't prejudge such matters by describing his opinions in detail.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee's top Democrat, told Alito he wondered whether ''you would stand as a check and balance, for this president or any president" as a Supreme Court justice. ''All of us agree the president is not above the law," Leahy said. ''But it takes more than that, especially if we're giving the president the power unilaterally to redefine the law."