I only saw like five minutes of the Alito hearings today, but they happened to be with Senator John Cornyn of Texas as he read his statement. Cornyn mentioned that he wished the courts were as interested in protecting the right to religious expression as they are in defending the right to sell pornography. Well, I paraphrase, but that was the gist of his closing lines.
I like Cornyn and respect him. And I agree, although I am definitionally an atheist, that it is absurd that our culture will stand for gratuitous sex and violence, but not for voluntary prayer. Oh, people can get all worked up about Janet Jackson's prosthetic nipple, but that was just a media concoction, ready-made for [outrage]. The truth is that our culture is awash in vulgarity ---but, somehow, our moral senses are offended when young Christian men and women choose to express their gratitude to God (a four-letter word, according to Cornyn). There is no question that this is the essence of perversity.
As for Alito, it will be easier for Democrats to vote against him since he will not be the Chief Justice of the United States for the next quarter-century. He will also be more easily opposed because he is more obviously pro-life. But, in the end, Sam Alito will be confirmed and the Democrats can then go on the John Paul Stevens Death Watch.