ls Alito an Originalist?

The New York Times is reporting today that Alito is an originalist.  This claim has been made, even if obliquely, by the ACS Blog for some time.  I appreciate the singular quote that the Times cites in support; but my reading of that sentence spoken by Alito (from The New Republic) is different: I think he routinely claimed the priority of text throughout the hearings -- and gave little indication that he has the stomach for originalism.  Although I agree that he'll be closer to Thomas and Scalia on results, I find little evidence in his prior writings, opinions, or answers at the hearings that he will embrace a thorough-going originalist methodology.  He'll be less eclectic and pragmatic than Roberts, I concede, but it really is hard to imagine him doing the sort of excavation and historical work that originalists perform.

To the extent that there is some evidence from his prior opinions, there is one nugget (and one that actually might be heartening to the pro-choice camp).  Here's how I put in my last New Republic column on Alito:

A final data point on the abortion question: In the 1997 case Alexander v. Whitman, Alito acknowledged the continuing validity of Roe by concurring in an opinion that held it constitutional for New Jersey's Wrongful Death Act and Survival Action Act to deny a cause of action to beneficiaries or tortiously killed fetuses unless they survive past birth. In his very short separate opinion, Alito acknowledged that a fetus is not a "person" under the Constitution. Interestingly, to make his case, he drew upon the original intentions of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, under which the plaintiffs were suing. That reasoning sounds Scalia-esque. But the outcome of the reasoning was something else: a setback for abortion opponents.

Here's how I analyzed the question in October:

Is, then, Alito an originalist in the mold of Scalia -believing that constitutional provisions should be interpreted so as to give effect to the public meaning the words had when they were authored? We have precious little evidence to reach that conclusion from a quick search through his judicial opinions. He quotes the constitution's Framers in two Fourth Amendment cases; and in one Speech and Debate Clause context. James Madison and The Federalist Papers get a single nod in an election law decision, but mostly gratuitously. For a judge on the bench as long as Alito, one would sniff more vintage from his opinions if he were a committed originalist.

I may be wrong about this, but I don't think the evidence is substantial enough to make the claim credible that Alito is an originalist.  Have I missed some very clear evidence?  Please enlighten me.