Let's get our facts straight about Alito.

He did come down on the side of requiring spousal notification, (not consent)
supporting a Pennsylvania law) on abortion. But he also endorsed exceptions to that, as for instance in the Pennsylvania case, women who "might reasonably fear domestic abuse from their husbands."

He has not indicated he wants to overturn Roe--from the public radio commentaries I've heard, it appears Bush and his minions are totally aware of the majority US opinion--which favors abortion rights. In fact, what I heard was that any attempt to overturn Roe was likely to provoke a huge backlash.

I think he's dead wrong on the machine gun issue, though even here he did not say private ownership of machine guns is just fine, but that federal control on this issue was wrong since it has nothing to do with insterstate commmerce, the Constitutional handle used to ban it. As I said, he's dead wrong here--the overriding importance of banning sale of machine guns trumps Constitutional questions. But for him, virtually nothing does.

On the Jersey City creche issue-it seems reasonable that the addition of Frosty the Snowman did, as he said, defuse the religious issue--that's not exactly the endorsement of religion by the state.

Bush has been losing ground recently, but, contrary to assertions made on Mudcat, this nomination will help him rally his troops in a big way. And, since Alito knows how to portray himself as a reasonable and calm jurist (not a flaming reactionary a la Scalia), unless a smoking gun is found in his personal life, he likely will be confirmed. He will probably receive the support of most Republican moderates in the Senate. We may of course see a filibuster--then the "nuclear option". It ain't over by quite a bit.