al-Reuters:
But one Republican member, Mike DeWine of Ohio, called Alito a "mainstream conservative" and said critics should not try to kill his nomination through a procedural move called a filibuster.
"This is a good solid pick by the president," DeWine said after more than an hour of private talks with Alito. "This is not someone who is out on the fringes."
FOX News (AP):
Sen. Mike DeWine (search), who met with President Bush's latest high court choice Tuesday, warned Democrats he would side with GOP leaders to eliminate the judicial filibuster if the minority party uses it against the New Jersey judge.
"It's hard for me to envision that anyone would think about filibustering this nominee," said DeWine, an Ohio Republican who sided with 13 other Republicans and Democrats earlier this year to end a Senate stalemate over judicial filibusters.
CNN:
Sen. Mike DeWine emerged Tuesday from a meeting with Alito and said the nominee is a "good, solid pick by the president" who doesn't present the "extraordinary circumstances" necessary to trigger a filibuster.
PBS:
SEN. MIKE DeWINE: Well, you know, our group said basically -- our 14 members said that it would have to be extraordinary circumstances for there to be a filibuster. There's never been a filibuster on a Supreme Court nominee -- you know, some people would argue there's never been one. Some people say there was one. It's either zero or one, depending on whose history you believe.
So it's very, very rare and it's hard for me to believe when you look at this nominee, and you look at his decisions, you look at what type of person he is, that this constitutes extraordinary circumstances. This is such a rare, rare case, unusual case that a filibuster would be in order. And that was simply what I said today.
