Though it’s certainly true that there’s too much partisanship now and that it’s terrible we can’t come to agreement on judges blah blah blah, there’s something nicely austere about Samuel Alito winning approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee without a single Democratic vote. I mean, who would want a grubby yea vote from Ted Kennedy? A stuffed-up yea from Pat Leahy? A yea vote from Joe Biden that would take 17 minutes to cast? It’s not clear to me that if Herb Kohl read the word “yea” on the piece of paper he sticks in front of his face when he actually has to say anything, that he would even be able to pronounce it correctly. Their performances during these hearings were shameful, so who needs ‘em?