Rumor mill: Alito to be the nominee?

The following dispatch from RedState is just a rumor, but it's a heartwarming one. Alito's record shows that his judicial philosophy is quite similar to Scalia's, to the point that the judge has earned the nickname "Scalito". Seems like this would be a very good pick if it actually happens.

Multiple sources are telling RedState that Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will be named by the President at the next associate justice of the United States Supreme Court as early as Monday.

"The situation is still in flux," says one source, "but not very much." Says another, "The White House Counsel's Office is not doing too good at keeping this a secret."

Still another source says, "Luttig and Alito were the fall backs to Miers. They have both been vetted. Alito seems more palatable. There is no need to drag this out, he's been vetted a million times."

And yet another source tells me that he is convinced Alito is the nominee barring some last minute unforeseen issue. All signs are pointing to Judge Alito right now. Things could change, but as the weekend draws closer it seems more and more likely that Judge Alito will be the nominee and conservatives will have a fight on their hands in the Senate -- a very winnable fight.

You can read U.S. News' bio of Alito here.


UPDATE: Less than an hour after this was posted here, C-Pol was visited by someone in the uscourts.gov domain who was doing a blog search on the word "alito". Within minutes of that hit, I also got a similar blog search hit from the Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering Hale & Dorr law firm in D.C. Things that make you say Hmmmm.....

UPDATE #2: RedState is now back-pedaling on the Alito rumor. They say that the chatter is now leaning more in Michael Luttig's direction. Another name that is "in play": Karen Williams. RedState claims to have informed sources, but we'll have to see how many times these informed sources change their story.

UPDATE #3: More about Alito from law.com.