Short-term and long-term views of Alito

In the short term, it looks very likely that Samuel A. Alito, Jr., will be confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In the long term, though, the question of Alito's impact on the Court remains wide open.

In the 2000 election campaign, Governor Bush pledged to be "a uniter, not a divider," and to govern from the center. This nomination once again proves that Bush was lying.

By forcing Alito onto the Court, Bush is undermining the American people's already shaken trust in the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of questions of national importance. The long-term damage from this short-term victory will be felt for a generation or more.