WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Conservatives lauded President Bush on Monday for his choice of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, while liberals signaled a contentious confirmation hearing is ahead for the nominee.
Alito, a 55-year-old judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, is a favorite of conservatives, many of whom objected when Bush nominated White House legal counsel Harriet Miers at the beginning of the month.
After Miers withdrew Thursday, her nomination criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, conservatives eagerly awaited a nominee with judicial experience and credentials similar to Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Bush touted Alito's 15 years as a federal appellate judge and said, "This record reveals a thoughtful judge who considers the legal merits carefully and applies the law in a principled fashion."
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold Alito's confirmation hearing, slammed Bush's decision as pandering to his conservative base.
"This is a needlessly provocative nomination," said Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "Instead of uniting the country through his choice, the president has chosen to reward one faction of his party, at the risk of dividing the country."
Leahy's reaction was decidedly different from his comments after the president nominated John Roberts to succeed the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. Roberts, however, was re-nominated and confirmed as chief justice when William Rehnquist died.
Vermont's Leahy and other Democrats had withheld criticism of Roberts and promised a thorough review of his record.
Leahy said he still could change his mind about the Alito nomination.
"I have not formed a final judgment as to the merits of this nomination, although a review of Judge Alito's record suggests areas of significant concern," Leahy said.
Another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, also panned the president's pick.
"The initial review of Judge Alito's record shows that there's a real chance that he will, like Justice Scalia, choose to make law rather than interpret law and move the court in a direction quite different than it has gone," Schumer said.
Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, who escorted Alito around the Capitol on Monday, said he was concerned with the partisan debate, but he was sure that the nominee would get a fair vote in the Senate.
"It's going to be tough," the Tennessee Republican said.
The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, praised Alito's record and said the committee would have a plethora of material to review. Alito has written more than 300 opinions and been involved in more than 3,500 cases, Specter said.
"We have a very good idea as to his approach to jurisprudence," the Pennsylvania Republican said.
Legal experts consider the 55-year-old Alito a solid conservative.
"The qualifications issue, I don't think will cut against him at all," CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. "The big issue will be judicial philosophy. He is very conservative, and the issue that he is most publicly identified with is abortion."
In 1991, in one of his more well-known decisions, Alito was the only dissenting voice in a 3rd Circuit ruling striking down a Pennsylvania law that required women to notify their husbands if they planned to get an abortion. The Supreme Court upheld the decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
"I think a lot of people will look to that [Alito's opinion] as a proxy, as a symbol, as a hint of how Judge Alito feels about Roe v. Wade and conservatives will be pleased," Toobin said. "Liberals will be very distressed, I think."
As opposed as they were to Miers' nomination, conservative activists were equally pleased with the president's latest choice.
"Harriet Miers was a feminist who had no judicial experience and her strongest qualification was that she's a friend of the president's. Alito has a terribly impressive record as a judge and as a prosecutor," said Phyllis Schlafly, president of the ultra-conservative Eagle Forum.
Jan LaRue, legal counsel for Concerned Women for America, a conservative public policy group, complimented Alito's qualifications and said he "has always been one of our top choices for the Supreme Court."
Abortion-rights activists said they strongly opposed the nomination.
"Judge Alito would undermine basic reproductive rights, and Planned Parenthood will oppose his confirmation," Karen Pearl, interim president of the organization. "It is outrageous that President Bush would replace a moderate conservative like Justice O'Connor with a conservative hardliner."
Alito said while on the bench he has kept in mind what he called a "solemn responsibility."
"Federal judges have the duty to interpret the Constitution and the laws faithfully and fairly, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans, and to do these things with care and with restraint, always keeping in mind the limited role that the courts play in our constitutional system," he said.
"And I pledge that, if confirmed, I will do everything within my power to fulfill that responsibility.
Alito, a Yale law school graduate, was put on the circuit court bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 after his service as U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
He also served as assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee from 1981 to 1985, where he argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court.
If confirmed, he would replace O'Connor, often a moderate swing vote, on the high court.
O'Connor, who has announced her retirement, will stay on the court until the Senate confirms her replacement.
CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this story.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/31/sco...bush/index.html
