Teaching Dilemma; Raking; The Brewing Battle

Today I'm teaching Ray Carver's short story "Cathedral" in my Intro to Fiction class. It's one of my favorite short stories, but I'm pretty much drawing a blank about what to say about it. I'm also teaching John Updike's "A&P," which doesn't do much for me, but seems to offer a lot of fodder for discussion. It's not uncommon for me to find the books I most like to read are not the ones I find easiest to discuss, or to teach. You'd think it would be the other way around.
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Most years, I'd be doing the last of my leaf-raking now. But the trees in and around my yard still have most of their leaves. Unusual.
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Is it just me, or has Democratic oppostion to Bush's latest pick to SCOTUS been just a bit too reflexive? It appears all sides are marshalling forces for a battle royal, but is this the fight Democrats ought to pick? I get the impression many of them, in and out of office, are so eager to strike a blow against Bush that they'll hurl everything they have into anything that they can oppose him on. Some things ought to be fought tooth and nail, but if you go full tilt at everything, the act wears rather thin after a while. And the odds are, barring some kind of really shocking revelation of wrongdoing on Alito's part, he will be confirmed. And it's unlikely Bush is going to nominate someone to the liking of liberals. My suggestion to Democrats would be to take a wait and see approach to Judge Alito at first (too late), give him a sound grilling, give him a stern rebuke for not being forthcoming in his confirmation hearings (and he won't be), then let the vote go forward. They should throw their weight into opposing Bush's latest round of tax cuts.

A few liberal lawyers of my acquaintance suggest that Alito may not be the nightmare some are making him out to be. But the fight that appears to be looming over his confirmation will be a nightmare for the country as a whole.