To the Point

What's Up with the Democrats?

Judge Samuel Alito was confirmed today to the US Supreme Court, and tonight President Bush gets the bully pulpit for his State of the Union address. For Democrats, the President's many weaknesses provide a moment of opportunity, but the Alito nomination showed how divided they are. Some call today's failed filibuster a good idea. Others say it'll hurt Democrats in Red states. Angry liberals are asking why a conservative Virginian was picked to respond to President Bush. We hear about the growing influence of Internet bloggers on the party's Washington establishment and ask Democrats on the left, right and center if compromise or confrontation is the best way to turn things around. Making News: Split Senate Confirms Alito as Supreme Court JusticeSamuel Alito is now Justice of the US Supreme Court, sworn in almost immediately after the Senate confirmed his appointment today by a vote of 58 to 42. David Savage, who covers the Supreme Court for the Los Angeles Times, traces the judicial philosophy of the man he describes as the "second generation of the Reagan court." Reporter's Notebook: RIP, Coretta Scott KingShe went from segregated rural Alabama to the New England Conservatory of Music, planning to become a classical singer. Instead, she married a young minister from Atlanta and her life was changed forever. Historian Clayborne Carson, Director of the Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford University, has more on Coretta Scott King, who died today at the age of 78, and will be remembered as much more than the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.