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Senate hearings begin for Bush nominee

WASHINGTON: United States President George W. Bush sent Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito off to his confirmation hearings on Monday with best wishes and a demand that Senators ``give this man a fair vote and an up or down vote.''

Mr. Alito was facing close questioning by the Judiciary Committee to determine his fitness to be the nation's 110th Supreme Court Justice. But first, he got some last-minute encouragement from Mr. Bush over breakfast at the White House.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the President called Mr. Alito ``eminently qualified'' to be on the court and said he told the judge that ``he's conducting himself with such dignity and class.'' ``Sam's got the intellect necessary to bring a lot of class to that court,'' Mr. Bush said as he escorted Mr. Alito before news cameras in the Rose Garden.

``He's got the judicial temperament necessary to make sure that the court is a body that interprets the law and doesn't try to write the law.'' Mr. Alito, a conservative, 15-year member of the Federal Appeals Court in Philadelphia, was chosen by Mr. Bush on October 31 to succeed the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the apex court.

Ms. O'Connor, a Justice since 1981, was a decisive swing vote on abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action and other highly contentious issues. — AP

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