lefty-ist or lefty-est?

I mean, I’m trying to decide how hard I should laugh.

In listening to Tuesday’s Alito hearings, I caught Orin Hatch making this statement:

I don’t know a judge alive who has been on the bench 15 years that doesn’t have, uh, cases that some of our lefty-ist members, uh, disagree with.

. . . or is it “lefty-est members?” Orin, I gotta know! Are you defining a new fringe of the Democratic Party—the leftyists—or are you saying that only the very most “lefty” members—the lefty-est—could possibly disagree with anything—anything at all—decreed by Strip Search Sam?

Am I supposed to assume that everyone else in the Senate has zero degree of difference with Alito. . . or only the righty-est members? Or is that righty-ist?