Nothing less than a slam dunk.

Samuel Alito made the eight Democrats at the confirmation hearings look overmatched and mean-spirited. The Republicans couldn’t have asked for a better process. Their job was quite simple, to sit back and correct the misleading and intentional smear tactics the Democrats were attempting. I am not referring to all the Democrats. Sens. Kohl, Feinstein and Feingold were the most professional of the eight.

I must have watched more than 90 percent of the hearings, either live, on tape delay that same evening or the video clips that anyone can find on the C-SPAN website.

The first day was a total waste with the Democratic senators taking advantage of the photo opportunities as they strutted and preened for their special-interest groups. The only thing worth watching was the opening statement by Alito.

It was day two when the fireworks began and when the Democrats began to realize how overmatched they were. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said it best. He stated that the Democrats were already determined to vote no. They just had to justify their reasons through their questions.

Let me cover some of the most ridiculous statements made by the remaining five senators:

Patrick Leahy is the ranking Democrat on the committee. Everyone must remember him as having to resign from the Senate Intelligence Committee under allegations of leaking sensitive information to the press. Mr. Ethics himself, second only to Ted Kennedy — his questions centered on all the typical topics: torture, right to privacy and illegal searches (where he insinuated that Alito was in favor of child molestation).

Alito handled his answers so that Leahy had no way to counter with additional questions. Later in the week, Leahy could only think of questions about whether an inmate on death row could be subpoenaed as a witness before the Senate! Even Alito was stumped by that question!

Sen. Biden, who actually is an intelligent Democrat, was so caught up in himself that most of his time was spent lecturing, as if getting the answer was unimportant. One newscaster stated that Biden spoke for 26 of his allotted 30 minutes the first day. If I were Alito, I would have asked him, or anyone else whose question went over 10 minutes, to please repeat the question.

Sen. Durbin enjoyed taking one or two sentences out of Alito’s rulings and had to be repeatedly corrected and chastised by the Republican members for misstating the facts of each case. He had to be corrected in almost every instance.

Sen. Schumer — where do I start? He was the one waving a copy of the Constitution as he questioned the judge about issues that he knew Alito shouldn’t answer. I can’t believe that he asked if the right to free speech was in the Constitution.

When Alito very diplomatically reminded the senator that it was stated in the First Amendment, Schumer then asked why the judge couldn’t answer whether the right to an abortion was in the Constitution. Alito tried to answer the question, but the answer appeared to be over the head of the senator.

Now to Sen. Kennedy. You remember him, the swimming champion of Chappaquiddick. It is difficult to understand why he was, of all people, assigned the responsibility of asking questions on ethics. His biggies were a former Vanguard case, where he repeatedly accused the judge of being unethical for not recusing himself, and the judge’s membership in an association called Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

The judge answered to everyone’s satisfaction, but Kennedy refused to let the facts get in the way. I could just see Alito sitting there, staring at Kennedy with a cartoon bubble over him asking, "Why has this idiot asked me the same question 10 times?"

Now to the witnesses. The American Bar Association interviewed more than 2,000 individuals and gave Alito its highest rating for the second time. Every judge he ever worked with and three individuals who clerked for him had nothing but the highest praise for him.

The list of witnesses included people from the entire political spectrum. It is too bad that the Democratic committee members didn’t stick around to hear their praise. Hypocrites all. Why do they question the ethics of Alito and not Sen. Byrd of West Virginia, a past Kleagle of the KKK?

What do the Democrats do after having pie thrown in their face? They pout and refuse to honor a previous gentleman’s agreement. They originally stated that if the hearings could be moved to January, they would not delay any committee vote. So much for their integrity.

After Alito is confirmed, there is a bright future ahead. Bush might get to nominate one or two more justices. John Paul Stevens is 85, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steven Breyer are 72 and 68, respectively, each with health problems. Let us conservatives keep our fingers crossed. Janice Roberts Brown, Edith Brown Clement and Emilio Garcia are waiting in the wings.

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Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta and serves on the Unatego Central School Board of Education. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.