[JURIST] Democratic senators on the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Wednesday pressed apparent inconsistencies in answers to questions by Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito [official profile; JURIST news archive] during his third day of his confirmation hearings. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) [official website] contrasted Alito's Tuesday testimony that he would keep an "open mind" [JURIST report] on any future abortion cases before the Supreme Court with other testimony and writings [JURIST report] by Alito that Durbin said suggested "a mind that sadly is closed in some instances." Senate Democrats also pressed the issue of Alito's participation in a 2002 Vanguard [corporate website] case, despite holding six-figure investments with the company, after promising [JURIST report] the Judiciary Committee in 1990 that he would recuse himself from cases that presented such a conflict of interest. Republican senators defended Alito's testimony; Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) [official website] accused the Democrats of "grasping at any straw to tarnish [Alito's] record." AP has more.