That elusive mainstream

Groucho Marx used to tell the story of how, during a celebrity softball game, Will Rogers hit a double. When Groucho objected that Rogers had failed to find the makeshift second base, Rogers responded, “Groucho, at my age wherever I’m standing is second base.”

Liberal Democrats seem to employ the same definition of the judicial mainstream. However, Stuart Taylor does a nice job of showing that Judge Alito, his 1985 job application notwithstanding, is much closer to the mainstream than Justice Ginsburg, for example. With respect to the statements contained in Alito’s application, Taylor writes:

These are certainly the words of a Reagan conservative. But are they outside the mainstream? Somebody should tell The New York Times that Reagan won 49 states in 1984. And that in exit polls, many more Americans identify themselves as conservatives (34 percent in 2004) than as liberals (21 percent).

Please read the whole thing.

Via Ed Whelan at NRO’s Bench Memos.

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