95DevilleNS said:
I'm fine being by myself; I don't rely on someone else to 'bail' me out. It's my own private personal opinion that she wasn't as 'hurt' as she appeared to be, not sure how that is construed as hatred.
You act like I personally insulted and molested her :slam . She's fine I'm sure, she got her press coverage, Ted and the Democrats look like insensitive A-holes, it worked, be happy, your side scored a point.
Do you realize how much press coverage (News Papers & Radio) she got from a few tears? You'd think the focus would be on her husband and the hearing.
Actually you'd think the focus would be on Kennedy and Schumer and their abominable behavior. In fact, they WANTED the focus to be on them, that's why they acted like that. Get a clue.
January 11, 2006
But Enough About You, Judge; Let's Hear What I Have to Say
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - The Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. were supposed to be about the judge, but on Tuesday it sometimes seemed as though somebody forgot to tell the senators on the Judiciary Committee.
The lure of 50 cameras and the captive audience in the Senate Hart Office Building appeared too much of a temptation for some of Capitol Hill's windiest lions, who began by promising not to run a marathon session of questions, then did so anyway.
At one point Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was even granted two extra minutes from the committee's chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania - drawing groans from colleagues, among them Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
"Be quiet over there," Mr. Kennedy admonished his fellow committee members, to laughter. "Scurrilous dogs."
The highest ratio of words per panelist to words per nominee was that of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, who managed to ask five questions in his 30-minute time allotment.
"I understand, Judge, I am the only one standing between you and lunch, so I'll try to make this painless," he began, with some promise.
Mr. Biden then dived into a soliloquy on Judge Alito's failure to recuse himself from cases involving the Vanguard mutual fund company, which managed the judge's investments. After 2 minutes 50 seconds - short for the senator - Mr. Biden did appear to veer toward a question, but abandoned it to cite Judge Alito's membership in a conservative Princeton alumni group. Mr. Biden discoursed on that for a moment, then interrupted himself with an aside about his son who "ended up going to that other university, the University of Pennsylvania."
Judge Alito, who had been sitting without expression through Mr. Biden's musings, interrupted the senator midword, got out three sentences, then settled in for nearly
26 minutes more of Mr. Biden,
with the senator doing most of the talking. With less than a minute to spare, Mr. Biden concluded, thanked Judge Alito for "being responsive," then said to Mr. Specter that "I want to note that for maybe the first time in history, Biden is 40 seconds under his time."
The audience laughed appreciatively.
While most of the senators were at least as verbose as they were at the September confirmation hearings of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the crispest was the chairman, Mr. Specter, who dispensed with an introduction on Tuesday and was immediately out of the gate with a question about abortion.
"Judge Alito, do you accept the legal principles articulated in Griswold vs. Connecticut that the liberty clause in the Constitution carries with it the right to privacy?" Mr. Specter asked.
Judge Alito, as Chief Justice Roberts had before him, said that he did, indicating that he at least did not rule out the pivotal legal underpinning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.
Mr. Specter then moved into the same line of questioning he had used for the chief justice, even displaying the same chart that listed the 38 Supreme Court cases since Roe that affirmed the right to abortion.
Like almost everything else, the chart created an opportunity for more words from members of the committee. As an aide held the chart up behind Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, who opposes abortion rights, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who supports them, was moved to crack, "Just balance that on Orrin's head."
Mr. Specter, who also supports abortion rights, chimed in, "It's a good photo-op for Senator Hatch."
Mr. Hatch, grinning, would have none of it. "He wants that over by Leahy," he said.
Mr. Hatch was Judge Alito's friendliest inquisitor, and often seemed like a concerned defense lawyer lobbing softballs to his client.
"So let me just ask you directly, on the record, Are you against women and minorities attending colleges?" Mr. Hatch asked.
"Absolutely not, Senator, no," Judge Alito replied.
Mr. Specter interjected, chuckling, "A tough question, Orrin, a tough question."
Mr. Hatch shot back, "It's a good question, though."
The most indignant questioner was Mr. Leahy, who went on a ramble through his own Irish and Italian roots and compared the discrimination that his parents and grandparents faced with the hard-luck story of Judge Alito's father, who came to the United States from Italy as an infant, grew up in poverty and had a difficult time getting a teaching job.
Given that history, Mr. Leahy said, he was particularly troubled that Judge Alito would have joined the conservative college group, Concerned Alumni of Princeton University, which resisted the admission of women and members of minorities.
"Why in heaven's name, Judge, with your background and what your father faced, why in heaven's name were you proud of being part of C.A.P.?" Mr. Leahy asked.
Judge Alito, who acknowledged having listed the group on a 1985 job application, responded, "I have racked my memory about this issue, and I really have no specific recollection of that organization."
The judge's toughest questioner was Mr. Schumer, who late in the day bored in with follow-up after follow-up about whether Judge Alito thought that the Constitution protected the right to abortion. In 1985, Judge Alito - then applying for a position in the Justice Department - contended that the Constitution did not guarantee such a right.
But on Tuesday, Judge Alito repeatedly refused to say what he now thought of the issue, exasperating Mr. Schumer.
"I do have to tell you, Judge, your refusal I find troubling," he said, likening the side-stepping to the response that might have been given by a friend who had told him 20 years earlier, "You know, I really can't stand my mother-in-law.'
Mr. Schumer spun out the rest of the hypothetical: "And a few weeks ago, I saw him and I said, 'You still hate your mother-in-law?' He said, 'Well, I'm now married to her daughter for 21 years, not one year.' I said, 'No, no, no, do you still hate your mother-in-law?' And he said, 'Mmm, can't really comment.' "
Mr. Schumer paused. "What do you think I'd think?" he asked the nominee.
The barest of smiles crossed Judge Alito's face. "Senator, I think --"
Mr. Schumer, in the theme of the day, cut him off. "Let me just move on," he said. Mr. Schumer seemed to notice that Judge Alito's mother-in-law was in the hearing room.
"I have not changed my mother-in-law," Judge Alito offered.
As always, the senator had the last word. "I'm glad you haven't, because she seems nice," Mr. Schumer said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/politics/politicsspecial1/11senators.html?pagewanted=print
