January 12, 2006
Empty Suits and Empty Chairs
Senate Democrats took the better part of four days to assault the character and moral fiber of a composed and dignified Judge Samuel Alito.
But when seven appeals court judges came to testify about Alito's stellar qualfications, the Senators did what modern Democrats do best, as noted by Michelle Malkin:
Chuck Schumer walked out before the judges started to speak. Teddy Kennedy showed up late, stayed for 10 minutes, then left. Pat Leahy put on a dour face for a short time, and also bailed. Dianne Feinstein, to her credit, remained for the duration and asked respectful questions.
These four days of testimony were never about "advise and consent," nor giving Judge Alito a fair hearing, but were instead about partisan demogoguery. As John Hinderaker notes:
...if the Democrats were actually interested in what kind of judge Sam Alito is, these [judges] are precisely the witnesses who could tell them. If the Democrats really thought that Alito's judicial opinions reflect poorly on him, these are exactly the people who could answer their questions, and, if they are correct, confirm their fears. But the Democrats apparently knew that wasn't going to happen. The only conclusion one can draw is that the Democrats knew they were smearing a fine man and a fine judge. But the fact that they didn't even have the decency or respect to stay and listen to Alito's colleagues is disgusting.
The Senate Democrats did not want to hear from the appelate judges. The Senators made their scurrilous attacks against a far better man than they, and having failed in their ignoble endevour, they committed to doing what Democrats do best.
They cut and ran... again.
Note: Though it wasn't intentional, it seems that I pretty much ripped off the title and content of this post from Hugh Hewitt through some sort of blogroll osmosis. Freaky.
I still can't figure out how that Fat Jabba-the-Hut looking Chappaquidick young woman killer blob still gets elected.
I still believe in democracy but when things like that happen it makes you wonder.
I still believe.... I still believe... I still believe...
Posted by: Retired Navy at January 13, 2006 06:31 AMInteresting. The only senator to mention bigot and Alito in the same sentence was a republican. And clearly that was scripted.
The Demos did what they are supposed to do. Probe the background of a nominee to a powerful, lifetime position.
Posted by: ArthurStone at January 13, 2006 10:00 AMArthur, as ever, you occupy that "reality-based" community that isn't quite the real world.
Did Democrats ask questions, or did they mix in thinly-veiled, probing personal attacks with rambling, odd speeches about nothing?
Patrick Leahy was creepily enraptured with the concept of strip-searching ten your old girls. Joe Biden was intensely focused like a laser on his favorite subject... Joe Biden.
Kennedy's sole function in this travesty was to levey personal attacks at Alito, insinuating aweful things about a public servant well respected by his peers and technically well-qualified for the postion of Supreme Court Justice. His attempts as "Borking" Judge Alito via a call for the Rusher papers (which were merrily delivered and found baseless) was intense, pathetic, and ultimately ineffective.
Via MSNBC:
The most vivid personal image to emerge from the hearings was that of Mrs. Alito, who was apparently driven to tears Wednesday by the insinuation from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that Alito may have agreed with some of the bigoted statements in articles in a magazine published by a group called the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP).
Not to be outdone:
Both Biden and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., an anti-Alito witness before the committee, compared Alito’s membership in CAP with membership in the Ku Klux Klan, which lynched blacks in the South. “I take him at his word that he didn't know what the group stood for,” Biden told Today Show host Katie Couric. “But I'm sure required to ask him, just like me asking you, `Katie, were you ever a member of the Ku Klux Klan?’”
When teh seven judges that could have answer the questions that Democrats claimed they wanted to know the answers to, they all fled, save one.
They weren't interested in probing Alito's judicial background, any more than you are interested in admitting their smears.
Pathetic, but about what we have come to expect from liberals.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at January 13, 2006 11:54 AMMaybe we should expend our energy questioning terrorists instead of a well qualified Justice. Maybe we can have Kennedy, Feinstein and the like question terror suspects. But of course, that would be cruel and inhumane . . .
Posted by: Marshall at January 13, 2006 01:44 PMMarshall, you may be on to something.
Maybe they'd want to leave us alone then.
Posted by: Retired Navy at January 13, 2006 01:51 PMWell, I just got off the Daily Ko's trying to grasp their take on Alito.
It gave me a headache.
Posted by: Retired Navy at January 13, 2006 02:09 PMNow here's a pefectly good example of rationalizing "logic" without holding it up to the light to see if it stands up to scrutiny. This is what the Left does best ... ahem ... most often. Goes right along with calling anyone who doesn't agree with them a nazi or a facist or a racist (their favorites). No need to actually come up with a coherent coounter-argument if they can call you a name, you know.
The only person to mention Bigot and Alito in the same sentence was a Republican
The statement may very well be a fact, but predictiably one starkly bereft of context (on purpose, of course, because it makes a good soundbyte that is meant to mean the opposite of what it really means when you look at it in context).
See, it turns out that the Democrats aren't QUITE stupid enough to come out and use the word, so they dance around it, implying it at every turn without actually saying it.
When he asked Alito if he was really a closet bigot, he was saying "Everyone sees what you're doing. Enough of this bullsh*t, let's move on".
What Senator Graham did was to point out to the Dems and anyone watching that they weren't fooling anyone by dancing around the word "bigot" while trying to make it stick to a man that they know isn't one. They just need the nation to believe he is one because he can't be relied upon to advance their agenda from the bench, and it's one of the few labels that will get someone of Alito's qualifications dismissed.
Shameless and desparate is what the Democratic party has become.
All Things Beautiful TrackBack Alito's Justice Will Prevail
Posted by: Alexandra at January 13, 2006 03:57 PMOh calm down. Alito is a shoe in for the court.
Nothing at all wrong with taking a close look at the record of a jurist with a lifetime appointment. A man put forth when the extreme right wing of the Republican party shot down the inept Harriet Miers (sp?).
The Demos aren't there to hold the guys coat and lob easy questions. The majority party provides that role.
So don't sweat things. The expansion of the executive branch will continue unabated. Roe v Wade will be overturned and gay marriage will remain illegal. And the Democratic party will be dissolved by executive order.
Happy?
Posted by: ArthurStone at January 13, 2006 07:39 PM
