Diet Scalia? Scalia Zero?

So the president has, as expected, nominated Scalia-lite to the Supreme Court in order to appease his base in a time of, shall we say, personal need for his administration.

I am, in a word, horrified. Judge Samuel A. Alito scares me. You'll probably hear a lot about his record on abortion (more here), but on the issues that are important to me, the record doesn't suggest a happy future for America. His church-state separation record is mixed, the most disturbing of those issues being ACLU-NJ v. Township of Wall (2001), in which Alito ruled that a town didn't have to take down its eligious holiday displays because they were donated. (Which reminds me, I'm still waiting for someone to donate a giant Buddha to the state of Texas for placement on the capitol grounds.) His other cases seem to take a free exercise bent, which is fine, because I actually agree that religious student clubs should have the same rights as other clubs in public schools (see Child Evangelism Fellowship of N.J., Inc. v. Stafford Township School District (2004)).

SCOTUS blog has a great summary of Alito's work on the 3rd circuit.

On face, it doesn't all sound so bad. My reasons for being scared have more to do with the far-right's embrace of the nomination. Like this:

"Outstanding man! We're delighted!" sayeth Jan LaRue of Concerned Women for America. "For 15 years we've watched this man, he is a strict constitutionalist."

That quote and more on what's likely to happen in the battle here.

Dobson's statement on the Miers withdrawl here is some funny backpedaling.

I'm off to Waco.