(2005-10-31) — Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President George Bush’s most recent Supreme Court nominee, is “hopelessly overqualified” for the nation’s highest court, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.

“While average Americans had urged the president to appoint someone in the Harriet Miers tradition,” said Sen. Schumer, “Bush disappoints them by picking a Princeton and Yale graduate who’s a veteran jurist with a sharp intellect and rich legal experience. All of that ability and wisdom will be wasted at the Supreme Court, where his main job is simply to update the Constitution.”

The New York Democrat joined many of his colleagues in noting that the Supreme Court is “the people’s court” and should not be ruled by “an elite class of scholars far removed from the real world.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, “The president acknowledges that his nominee is probably too brilliant for this court.”

“Judge Alito would be a better candidate for the Senate, where he could help restore intellectual balance on Capitol Hill,” said Mr. McClellan. “But when your starter gets knocked out of the game, you have to go to the bench.”

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