The elite media consensus appears to be that Alito pretty much sailed through. (Read any major paper).

That view seems to be confirmed by the rumor that Patrick Leahy is asking for "round three", 15 hours not being enough time to fully explore Alito's suitability--in another words, "we need more time to rattle his cage".

The pressure is now on the Democrats to really bear down. Certainly the elite media is desperate for a story out of this process, and they haven't gotten one so far. The "desperation" synergy between committee Democrats and the media probably means any glimmer of controversy is going to get big play.

If Patrick Leahy's line of questioning is how its going to be, this is going to be a dull day and a disappointment to the media. Even in the unlikely event that Leahy manages a gotcha, the legalwze is so thick that you won't be able to extract a useable soundbite.

I just don't think its possible to "get" Sam Alito. He seems to have total recall of every legal opinion he ever read or issued, he demonstrates a consistent-to-the-point-of-slavishness intellectual rigor and to top it off, the articulacy to express the product of his intellectual process.

Absent an Alito mistake, the Democrats aren't left with much to work with. The political climate in this country at present simply rejects the Democrat notion of fairness--equality of outcomes.