God in the House for the Alito Hearings

According to The Wall Street Journal (via Salon), three Christian ministers anointed the doors of and chairs inside the room where the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its confirmation hearings on Judge Alito tomorrow. In what they called a "consecration service" in the hallway outside the room, the three read from the Book of Psalms, knelt down to pray the Lord's Prayer, and drew a cross in oil on the door. Capitol Hill police kept them out of the room itself, but it didn't matter, because they claimed to have been inside to pray and anoint the chairs with oil the day before. Police couldn't confirm or deny that event, admitting that the doors of these rooms are usually kept unlocked because "they're not of interest to anyone."

Although they claimed their consecration service wasn't meant to sway the hearings one way or the other, two of the ministers revealed that they had made the same preparations before the Roberts hearings, which they felt "went very well." It is unknown what kind of Senatorial dry-cleaning bills resulted from their previous activity.