Alito says personal views on abortion won't be a factor

From the endangered Knight Ridder:

Despite recently unearthed documents showing his strong opposition to abortion two decades ago, Judge Samuel Alito said Friday that his personal views on the socially divisive subject "would not be a factor" if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

In response to alarms raised by liberal critics about Alito's attempts to bolster abortion restrictions in the mid-1980s, Alito responded to questions about his decades-old writings from Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who then relayed the answers to reporters.

"Judge Alito commented about those matters to me and raised a sharp distinction, as he put it, between his role as an advocate and his role as a judge," Specter said of the private meeting that lasted just over an hour.

Puh-leeze. Do you really think my assprint in the back of the turnip truck is that warm?

This is an increasingly common M.O. among the hard-right when they have their turns before Senate mikes. "Sure, I personally believe that [fill in disqualifying quackpot viewpoint here]. But I will ignore those personal views and do my job based on the Constitution and be just as warm and cuddly as all you rubes ... er, moderate Senators want me to be."

Is there any empirical basis for believing these duplicitous fourflushers? I haven't seen it. If there is anything we should have learned form the last five years, it is that personal and even delusional beliefs are far more central to the behavior of appointees at every level of the Bush team than any other form of input: law, logic and especially facts seem to be greeted with indifference at best, and more often with open hostility.

So, note to Arlen Specter et al:

He. Is. Lying.