I may have erred in consigning Chaffee to the automatically opposed to Alito camp. Barone, a long time student of American politics, points out that there is the "Italian" factor, one which the asshole left has already alienated. Italian Americans are "fed up to here" with being labeled or accused of being connected at birth to the Mafia. Democrats have already tried to smear Alioti with failing to prosecute the Genovese crime family, hinting that the failure was because he is Italian and obviously mob connected; this is a smear that has already blown up in their faces. But the Italian issue is now so hot that Senators living and running in states with large Italian American populations have been driven into the Alito camp. This includes especially Lincoln Chaffee from the well known Mafia hang out of Rhode Island; Barone says Chaffee votes for Alito or he sleeps with the fishes. Susan Collins, ever the chickenshit, will be totally afraid to be the only one of two Republicans to oppose (the other being the Lefty bitch, Snowe) especially when you consider how many Democrats owe their elections to their state Italian American voting blocks and will not vote against Alioti no matter what. Read Barone's piece here.