The AP (on FoxNews.com) today quotes Sen. Chuck Schumer saying: "These are going to be very, very serious questions that are asked of Judge Alito about executive power and when he thinks it should be checked."
To what is the liberal New Yorker referring? He's hoping to be able to nail Alito on President Bush's "spy[ing] on American citizens with possible terror ties." Next week, Schumer and Sen. Arlen Specter plan to question Bush's SCOTUS nominee about his views on the secret, anti-terror surveillance program that was revealed by the New York Times.
According to the report, Democrats are prepared to pepper Alito about a 1984 memo he wrote to his then-boss Rex Lee, former Solicitor General. Lee had asked Sam Alito for his advice on how the DOJ should argue a looming Supreme Court case. Writes the AP:
The case was against former Attorney General John Mitchell. The plaintiff in the case, an American citizen, wanted money from Mitchell, who had approved a secret warantless tap of the plaintiff's phone.
Alito argued the attorney general should be immune from such lawsuits...
The best part about the article, however, is that those Lefties who so hope to hurt Alito with this memo are going to have to deal with the fact that super-lib Justice John Paul Stevens agreed with Alito's position.
