Thank goodness Harriet withdrew.

Bill Sammon reports:

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.

"I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.

The document, which is likely to inflame liberals who oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court [Ya think? - ed.], is among many that the White House will release today from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

In direct, unambiguous language, the young career lawyer who served as assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, demonstrated his conservative bona fides as he sought to become a political appointee in the Reagan administration.

"I am and always have been a conservative," he wrote in an attachment to the noncareer appointment form that he sent to the Presidential Personnel Office. "I am a lifelong registered Republican."

This is what PFAW and Schumer have been looking for. It ups the stakes in this confirmation hearing. Of course, it was twenty years ago, but that won't matter to them.

This will trigger the fight conservatives have been longing for. The Dems will consider it "extraordinary circumstances" and try a filibuster. The ability of Republicans to deliver their members' votes is questionable, so we might see the "Nuclear" or "Constitutional" option invoked.

Nobody has every gone to the mat on filibustering a judicial nominee. The Dems have the votes to prevent cloture, but they may not have the votes to defeat a ruling from the chair that you can't filibuster presidential nominations.

This reminds me of the reporter in Mr. Smith goes to Washington excitedly reporting that they were going to see a filibuster. We're not likely to see a spectacle like that in the film, because both sides can count votes and won't push the matter unless they have them. Nevertheless, the excitement is there. The Republicans have the votes to confirm, but there are enough of them who are pro-abortion-rights to make it a jump ball.

Wow!