A little factoid, possibly widely forgotten if ever known by many, about Sam Alito.

[Stinky The Clown]

His seat opened up during Bush The Lesser's reign. Bush The Lesser put up Harriet Miers. She was deemed unqualified and her nomination was withdrawn.

Bush The Lesser's replacement was Sammy Alito.

And while we're at it, Poppy is the one who gave us Sammy's buddy, Clarence.

[House of Roberts]

1. Wasn't Alito's nomination withdrawn when Renquist died,

to put Roberts in as Chief Justice, then he was confirmed after Roberts?

[canetoad]

2. John Roberts

Was nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Then Rehnquist died and Roberts was switched to replace him as CJ. Miers was nominated to then replace S D O'C and withdrew. Then the seat went to Alito.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

3. The Bush's really screwed us up. Then we had Reagan.

Can’t decide which was worse…

[In It to Win It]

11. One is dead and was President in over 30 years ago, and the other has been gone for 15 years and

we're still living with their worst decisions.

[DFW]

4. I doubt that Alito was the doing of Bush, Junior

He wouldn’t have known what to look for or where. Someone THAT evil was more probably the pick of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Bush wouldn’t have thought up Citizens United five years in advance. Cheney and Rove would have, and I’m sure the subject was brought up in off-the-record job interviews held in small rooms away from the Oval Office (or maybe even away from DC). Alito’s enthusiasm for Citizens United, with a promise to uphold it if and when, surely paved his road to the short list, and, ultimately, his nomination.

[YodaMom2]

5. I recall reading somewhere

that the right wing cabal wanted Alito all along, but Harriet was Bush the Lesser’s friend and he wanted to do her a solid by putting her on the SC. When he nominated her (over their objections), it was they who revved up the Smear Machine and destroyed her reputation. Bush, having been sufficiently chastened, nominated Alito - exactly as they wanted.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

9. I Believe It Was Calculated

There was heavy partisan resistance to nominees. Harriet would do whatever Poppy and Cheney wanted but they knew Alito their real choice might lose in round 1. After that drama with Harriet round 1 there would be no appetite for a fight and Alito gets in.

[ShazzieB]

10. My recollection is a little different.

What I remember is her nomination becoming the butt of a million jokes, because she was so laughably underqualified and the cronyism was so palpably obvious. The uproar convinced Dubya to withdraw her name, and he put Alito in instead.

My feeling is that she likely wasn't as evil as Alito (he's exceptionally evil, after all) but would have probably floundered due to her lack of pertinent experience. As a lawyer with no judicial background, she would have had no idea what she was doing.

[YodaMom2]

13. Exactly

The “uproar” was instigated and fueled by the forces pushing for Alito. She may indeed have been under-qualified, but that didn’t seem problematic for them when they put Thomas, Kavanaugh or Coney Island on the Court.

[ShazzieB]

14. Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barett all had varying amouts of experience as federal judges.

Kavanaugh had the most (12 years), followed by Barrett (3 years), and Thomas (1.5). Miers had none. Whatever forces were lobbying for Alito, I don't remember anyone on either side thinking she was a solid pick. The nomination was lampooned as rank cronyism and another dumb Dubya stunt.

All that said, I'm sure Bush was paying more attention to conservative critics than anyone else. After all the heat he took for the Miers nomination, it's not hard to imagine why he played safe and went with Federalist Society-backed Alito. Not a good outcome for the country at all.

[rubbersole]

6. Did the 'right wing cabal' rhyme with Cleanord Cleo?

[diva77]

7. I wouldn't be surprised if Cleanord Cleo is using some of his $1 billion slush fund to pull strings with

rethuglican swing state secretaries of state to ensure victory for the Defendant. It doesn't take much to finagle a few variables to make it happen.

[mahina]

8. I just do not understand how Christian nationalism can be ascending

When time after time we hear about reduced church, attendance, and less church in the lives of Americans.

I love my tiny and very liberal church, which I just started attending about four years ago for the first time since I was 12 years old. But in the years between now, I only stepped foot in churches for funerals and weddings.

[In It to Win It]

12. One of Miers' problems was that she wasn't enough of a right wing political hack for Republicans... and Alito was.

A lot of the opposition came to Miers came from Republicans.