When Judge Samuel Alito finishes fielding questions from Senators today, the solons on the judiciary committee will have an idea of where he stands on a host of important issues involving constitutional law and methods of interpretation and on a rash of less significant questions such as his tangential involvement in a controversial alumni group at Princeton University. In other words, Judge Alito appears to have met the Schumer Standard, which the senator established in his own opening Monday when he spoke of the need for responsiveness on the part of Judge Alito and said the senators “will expect clear and straightforward answers.” The senator went so far as to suggest that “it is more important that you answer than what you answer. We can have a respectful disagreement on the law, after an open and honest discussion, but we will serve neither the American people nor the democratic process if we learn little about those views.” The emphasis is Mr. Schumer’s.

Well, Judge Alito has certainly answered. According to analysis of his first two days of actual testimony performed by the Republican National Committee, Judge Alito answered a full 96% of the 620 questions Senators posed to him. By way of comparison, current Chief Justice John Roberts answered 89% of the 574 questions he was asked during his hearings. And both have been downright chatty according to the “Ginsburg Standard.” Justice Ginsburg answered only 79% of the 275 questions she was asked in her confirmation hearings in 1994. Which means that Judge Alito answered more questions – 328 – on his first day alone than Justice Ginsburg fielded during her entire hearing.

If we were gamblers, we’d bet that Senator Schumer ultimately will vote against Judge Alito’s confirmation. We don’t know anyone, not even among his big donors, who credits the senator with forthrightness in this charade, which has served to do little than cementing his reputation as a fringe player in mainstream politics. But everyone around town is kind of enjoying the guessing game as to what fake explanation Mr. Schumer is going to come up with to explain why he’s going to vote against Judge Alito. He can’t claim that Judge Alito is a mystery man, given Judge Alito’s talkativeness in the hot seat. The senator’s desire to inject the highest court in the land with his own liberal politics instead of sound constitutional reasoning will be the only other logical explanation.