Judging Alito

I have problems with the whole Alito nomination. Part of me wants to see his smarmy ass bounced across the Potomac; part of me wants to let him slide to avoid the potentially messy (and probably losing) battle to deny him confirmation.

Jeffrey Rosen, at TNR, has a good article on Alito, some of his history/rulings, and what the Senate should ask at his confirmation. However the hearings go, they should be great political theater.

Here, then, is the dilemma posed by Judge Alito: His federalism opinions suggest that he might be a conservative activist like Thomas with an agenda to restrict congressional power; many of his other opinions suggest that he might be a cautious incrementalist, as Roberts is likely to be, nudging the law in a more conservative direction rather than rewriting it from the ground up. Given the conflicting evidence, how can senators decide what kind of justice Alito would be?