With the Miers nomination shot down by his own party, President Bush capitulated today (a nod to Halloween, undoutedly) to his hardline ultra-right base by nominating Justice Alito (whom the left's blogosphere is fondly callign "Scalito").

Just how crazy is this nutty Rethuglican? Well - let's see. He seems convinced that wives are the property of their husbands, a nod to Victorian times. In his most publicized decision (the Federal Circuit precursor to the SCOTUS decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey), he was the lone dissentor to a court that decided to strike down a Pennsylvania law that would require married women to notify their husbands before having an abortion. In another less publicized decision (Doe v. Groody), he sided with police in a case involving the strip-searching of a women and her 10 year old daughter when the police warrant only named the woman's husband.

What else? Well, he attempted to strike down the Family and Medical Leave Act - which gives parents the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of their child. The Supreme Court overruled that decision. He supports race-based discrimination, discrimination based on disability, oh, and of course he supports the right of students to harrass other students based on sexual orientation (notice its one of the few moments he supports anybody's "right" to anything).

Bush declared war on Social Justice as soon as he took office, and this nomination is the crux of that war. Were Alito to be confirmed, he would replace O'Conner's moderate swing vote on the Supreme Court with a hardline conservative vote. Were he confirmed, we could expect that nearly every major initiative aimed at social justice built over the past 40 years will come tumbling down. But this won't happen. Why, you ask? Because Bush is knee-deep in post-Katrina / CIA Leak hell and the GOP is between a rock and a hard place. The American public is tired of the fire-and-brimstone lies that keeps spewing forth from the right - they're ready to hear the Left's voice! Be heard! Talk about Alito and what his nomination means to you and your core values. Call your Senator. Make Bush the lame duck that he deserves to be.