The recent announcement by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, postponing confirmation hearings on Judge Samuel Alito until January, was only the latest in a series of painful examples of what happens when Senate Republicans wimp out.
Mr. Specter did not wimp out. The Senate Republican “leadership” wimped out when they made him chairman of the Judiciary Committee after he fired a shot across the bow of his own president, right after the election, publicly warning President Bush not to nominate anyone to the Supreme Court who would stir up controversy in the Senate….