Alito Hearings, Senator Durbin's Opening Statements

Here is an advanced text of the opening statement by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Bugout-Ill.)

Judge Alito, I welcome you and your family to the Judiciary Committee. First, I would like to thank Chairman Specter for waiting until the new year to hold this hearing. Holding this hearing earlier would not have given us enough time to figure out our strategy for voting against you while at the same time making it seem like it is your fault. Why has this nomination risen to the level of historic importance? The Supreme Court has handed down 193 decisions over the past ten years that were decided by a 5-4 vote. Justice O’Connor was the fifth and deciding vote in 148 of these 193 cases. Time and again the vacancy you seek to fill was the most important vote on the Court for advancing the Bugout agenda. Justice O’Connor, the Justice whom you would replace if confirmed, was the fifth and decisive vote to safeguard Americans’ right to look at porn; the fifth vote to require our courtrooms to be accessible to the disabled; the fifth vote to allow the federal government to pass laws that allow the environmental wackos to triumph over common sense, the fifth vote to preserve the right of universities to place less qualified students in front of more qualified student because of their color; the fifth vote to ban the execution of serial murderers under 18 years old in America. And Justice O’Connor was the fifth vote to uphold the time-honored principle of shutting the church out of politics. Justice O’Connor has been the critical decisive vote on many issues that go to the heart of the Bugout agenda. The person who fills the O’Connor vacancy will truly tip the balance of the scales of Bugout values in America. For that reason, Judge Alito, your nomination is one of the most important Supreme Court nominations in a generation. Yesterday the Chicago Tribune editorialized that anyone who questions your nomination has a heavy burden of proof. I disagree. You have proven yourself completely unfit for the Bugout Party's plans for an America ruled by the Bugouts. My friend, Illinois Senator Paul Simon, once said the test for a Supreme Court nominee is not where he stands on any one specific issue. The real test is this: will you use your power help us, or hinder the Bugout Party in the coming years? I believe that is the right test, because the Supreme Court is the last refuge of our agenda, God knows we can't get the American People to go along with it.. In my lifetime, the Supreme Court has allowed mothers to kill their children, allowed cities to take land from private citizens for private development, and established the principle that our government should respect the values of the Bugout Party. These decisions are the legacy of justices who chose to expand our, Bugout, agenda as much as possible. If you are confirmed, Judge Alito, will you continue their legacy? No? I suspected as much.

Note: The Bugout Party is now the name for the Democratic Party. Bugout derives from the phrase, "bugging out", used during the Vietnam War, and means to scuttle away from a battle, even when you are winning. The Democrats have earned this title by constantly yelling that we should get out of Iraq, and constantly denying what is plain to the troops, that we are winning.