Defining Viciousness Down:

Dahlia Lithwick has what strikes me as a rather overheated criticism of Judge Alito. One item that particularly jumped out at me (emphasis added):

It's magic. Almost as if the whole Harriet Miers debacle never happened, President Bush has rapidly retreated from his judicial preferences of last month. . . . In the true spirit of Halloween, a month of vicious attacks from the right has been papered over, and this nomination is dressed up as if the last one never occurred.

Is it really fair and accurate to describe the criticisms of Harriet Miers as "vicious attacks from the right"? One may agree or disagree with the criticisms from the right, but "vicious"? Really?

Incidentally, would this, this, this, and this qualify as "vicious attacks from the media"? I actually don't think they do, but the stuff I'd seen from the right wasn't generally much more hostile than these items.