When You Don't Have the Law . . .

There's a well known old legal cliche: "If you don't have the law, argue the facts. If you don't have the facts, pound the table."

Teddy Kennedy's presentation this morning put me in mind of that old saw, given that he seemed to realize he couldn't outgun Alito on the law. So instead, he tried to turn to the facts. After listening to Judge Alito's reasoned explanation of Doe v. Groody (i.e. that a reasonable person could believe that the affidavit was incorporated into the search warrant at issue), Senator Kennedy simply responded with something to the effect of: "But they strip-searched a 10-year-old girl!" There it is -- fact-arguing and table-pounding in just one little comment.

As for the debate on executive privilege, the Democrats appear to be trying to get Alito to make a very commonsense admission: That the President, in fact, doesn't have to follow the law as legislated by Congress if the law is unconstitutional. Everybody knows (or should know) that's true -- but the Democrats clearly want to obtain some sound-bite that they can distort by proclaiming that "Alito believes the President is above the law!!!"

So far, he hasn't given it to them.