(2006-01-09) — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, said he hopes that the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of federal appeals court Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court will finally demonstrate to the American people that “the nominee is no Sandra Day O’Connor.”

“The president had an obligation to maintain balance on the court,” Sen. Kennedy said, “But look at the differences between Alito and O’Connor — the hair, the voices, the clothing. It’s like the president nominated O’Connor’s polar opposite just to poke us in the eye.”

White House officials sought to minimize the contrast, noting that the long black robes worn by Supreme Court Justices would hide many of the obvious differences between the retiring Justice O’Connor and Judge Alito.

But under heated questioning from reporters, White House spokesman Scott McClellan acknowledged that “they are two different people.”

However, Mr. McClellan said Judge Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, who sailed through his Senate hearings last year, “could have been twins separated at birth.”

“Sam Alito is just like John Roberts, only not so easy on the eyes,” he said. “But as long as you don’t follow the hearings on TV, you’ll see the striking similarities. The president thinks they’re so much alike that he sometimes calls the nominee Roberlito.”

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