Full disclosure: Kevin from Progress For America paid for my plate of cajun beans and rice. Not sure if that makes me his patsy or not, but rest assured that there aren't a lot of things I won't do for good cooking. Just ask my grandma.
Seriously though, it was a pleasant conversation and I was glad to gain some insight on Judge Alito from someone who is close to him.
Mr. Ericksen's portrayal of Judge Alito is one of a respected professional and a nice man. He stressed all of Alito's colleagues, some of whom he described as being very liberal, had the utmost respect for him as a person and for his ability as a judge. He also asserted that many of Alito's critics tend to take his rulings out of context, trying to conflate his support of the law with his support of (or opposition to) one political issue or another.
The example Ericksen gave me was Alito's dissent on U.S. v. Rybar (103 F.3d 273, 3d Cir. 1996). Many of Alito's critics have have taken his ruling on that case to mean that he supports a "machine gun in every home." Some of these people are referring to him as "Sammy 'Machine Gun' Alito," and while that is certainly a colofrul moniker a closer look at that ruling tells us that Alito's opinion really had less to do with guns than with federal jurisdiciton. It was his opinion that Congress has no jurisdiction to ban the simple possession of a machine unless they can come up with some connection between the machine gun and interstate commerce. Otherwise, the legality of possessing that firearm is stricly an issue for the state legislatures/courts.
And he was, of course, correct. But that won't stop some from painting Alito as some sort of gun-happy mobster.
Mr. Ericksen and I both agree that Judge Alito will be appointed to the high bench. He, as I do, feels that there will be some bit of nastiness and chest thumping over the nomination, but that ultimately Alito's credentials and professionalism will carry the day.
Ultimately I see Alito getting 60 - 65 votes in the Senate (with at least one coming from ND's Senators, probably Conrad).
Ericksen also told me that he has an op/ed written up that he'd like to submit to SA for publish, so look for that in the coming days.
Brett Narloch of Taking Back ND had a similar meeting today. Click here to read about it. His was with Bill Agress, one of Judge Alito's friends from high school. Here's an excerpt:
Agress went into LoRenzo’s Pizzaria on Hudson Street. The owner knew that Agress knew Alito. They got to talking. Finally, the owner said something like “anyone who wants to be a Supreme Court Justice eats here.” Agress didn’t understand. The owner explained that when Justice Scalia was a boy, his parents took him to that very pizzeria… and when Alito was a boy, his parents also took him to LoRenzo’s. Two supreme court justices (almost) ate at the same pizzaria when they were boys. How many pizzaeria’s can say that?
Sounds like Agress had some great stories to tell. It would have been fun to meet him along with Ericksen.