Despite Biden's pronouncement, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that not only will Alito be confirmed, but he'll be confirmed by an 80-20-type vote, rather than a 55-45-type vote. Face it: the friendly personality; the dozens of borderline-liberal former clerks and colleagues lining up in his defense; the abundant evidence of impressive mental acuity... the Bush administration has rebounded from the Miers debacle by re-nominating John Roberts.

While there's no question this time that Alito is a died-in-the-wool conservative (as there [almost] was, and [almost] still is, with Roberts), I'm depressingly doubtful that he's conservative enough ("extreme" enough) to prompt the kind of liberal upswell that would create the possibility of a politically-palatable filibuster. Nor, frankly, am I even convinced at this point that such a filibuster would be a good idea. Damn you, Republicans! Damn you and your intelligent, qualified, not-quite-fanatical nominees!