US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito faced more aggressive questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing yesterday from Democrats.
They who accused him of being evasive and challenged his stand on abortion and past membership in a conservative Ivy League alumni group.
Before the hearing recessed for the day, Republican senator Lindsey Graham chided Democrats for their tactics and Mr Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, tearfully left the Senate hearing room.
"I'm not any kind of a bigot," Mr Alito said after he had been pressed repeatedly about his membership two decades ago in the alumni group that opposed efforts to admit more women and minorities at Princeton University.
"I believe you," Mr Graham said. "I am sorry that you've had to go through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen to this."
Senator Richard Durbin kicked off the third day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, saying he was troubled Mr Alito had not disavowed a 1985 memo in which he wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
"I'm concerned that many people will leave this hearing with a question as to whether or not you could be the deciding vote that would eliminate the legality of abortion," said Mr Durbin.
Mr Alito, who wrote the memo as a Reagan administration attorney two decades ago, has not said how he would rule if abortion came before him on the high court.
President Bush has nominated Mr Alito (55) to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has often been the swing vote on abortion and other social issues on the nine-member court.
The issue is crucial to Mr Bush whose Christian conservative vote-base led the charge against his president's previous nominee to the post, Harriet Miers, because of her soft line on abortion.
Right-wing Christians hope Mr Alito's appointment see the Supreme Court comprise a majority of judges opposed to the controversial Roe vs Wadejudgment that legalised abortion in 1973.
Mr Alito appears headed for confirmation by the Republican-led Senate later this month.