We’ve seen this act before. nnSamuel and Mary-Ann Alito — the Mark and Patricia McCloskey of the Supreme Court (Ginni and Clarence Thomas are more the Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos types) — have been choreographing their manufactured outrage, as best I can tell, since Jan. 11, 2016. Long before Mrs. Alito (the associate justice’s term for her, not mine), who of late has been unfurling flags wherever she can find a pole, made her debut performance for the American people on the Senate floor.
Her act was both unconscionable and wildly successful.
On that day, more than 18 years ago, she was sitting behind her husband during his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. If you remember, Samuel Alito had been put forth by then-President George W. Bush after Bush withdrew the name of Harriet Miers. Alito’s nomination was rocky. The ACLU had come out against him; 50 environmental and conservation groups came out against him. Even the American Library Association — and how awful do you have to be to irk librarians? — came out against him, for being against federal anti-discrimination laws, against protections for sexual harassment, against the Family and Medical Leave Act, to name just a few.
But that’s not what caused Mrs. Alito’s famous, cynical, and choreographed meltdown that day — nor was it the comments from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who found Alito’s positions indefensibly cruel.
“If you are concerned and you want a justice that’s going to stand for the working men and women in this country — it’s not going to be Judge Alito,” Kennedy said. “If you are concerned about women’s privacy rights, about the opportunity for women to gain fair employment in America — it’s not Judge Alito. If you care about the disabled … the Disability Act that we have passed to bring all of the disabled into our society … if you are looking for someone that is going to be a friend of the disabled — it’s not going to be Judge Alito. And finally, if you are looking for someone that is going to be willing to stand up to the executive branch of government … it’s not going to be Judge Alito.”
Strong, partisan words, but nothing that would make you break down in tears.
(Kennedy was also, as it turned out, correct.)
Alito was asked, “Are you a closet bigot?”
But it wasn’t Kennedy who asked.
South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, a supporter of Alito’s, posed it.
“No,” answered Alito.
It was as if someone then yelled, “Action!”
Mrs. Alito stood up, tried to collect herself, and bolted from the Senate chamber, sobbing. As she was leaving, Graham answered his own question. “No, sir, you’re not.”
Here’s what the New York Post wrote at the time. “As she sat right behind her husband, [Mrs. Alito] Bomgardner’s lips trembled and she wiped away tears. Her sister-in-law Rosemary — herself a top lawyer — put a reassuring arm around her, but Bomgardner hastily fled the room.”
“We have to find a better way to do this,” said one senator in the aftermath.
That was Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee at the time, was shocked — shocked — by the outside influences in politics.
“It’s not just people in the room,” he said, “it’s the outside groups paying a lot of money, spending a lot of time to smear a good man.”
Even then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) got into the act, telling Fox News Channel that the opposition to Alito reminded him of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s bid to create guilt and the question posed to McCarthy by the chief counsel for the United States Army: “Have you no shame?”
(Newt Gingrich, who was having an affair on his cancer-stricken soon-to-be-second ex-wife, and no one to talk about shame, got the quote wrong. Joseph Welch actually asked McCarthy, “Have you no decency?” Which Gingrich also didn’t have.)
Later that day, Mrs. Alito came back to the hearing, holding her husband’s hand, all smiles. She had the look of someone who had decided to forgive us.
And we sometimes ask ourselves why the electorate is cynical.
Which brings us to the latest controversies: her flying an upside-down American flag outside their home in Washington, and then an “Appeal to Heaven” flag she flew at their New Jersey beach home.
“She has made many sacrifices to accommodate my service on the Supreme Court,” said Justice Alito, “including the insult of having to endure numerous, loud, obscene and personally insulting protests in front of our home that continue to this day and now threaten to escalate.”
Luka Donic doesn’t whine this much.
It’s good to remember that the two biggest obstacles on the Supreme Court these days are brought to us not by a convicted felon, the man leading in most presidential polls, but by the Bushes: George H.W. Bush, who offered up Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall, and George W. Bush, who gave us, as mentioned, Alito, who was in line to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
At the time of Alito’s confirmation, Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Minority Leader, said, “President Bush was not obligated to nominate a clone of Justice O’Connor, but this president has no mandate to move the Supreme Court and the American law in a radical rightward direction. That is precisely what replacing Justice O’Connor with Judge Alito will accomplish.”
We should have listened to Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid when we had the chance.
One last thing: At one point, Alito said, “My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She, therefore, has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.”
Imagine how wonderful it would be if women could get the same legal protection and keep Alito away from their wombs.
Barry Friedman is an essayist, political columnist, petroleum geology reporter — quit laughing — and comedian living in Tulsa, Okla. His latest book, “Jack Sh*t: Volume One: Voluptuous Bagels and other Concerns of Jack Friedman” is out and the follow-up, “Jack Sh*t, Volume 2: Wait For The Movie. It’s In Color” will be released in July. In addition, he is the author of “Road Comic,” “Funny You Should Mention It,” “Four Days and a Year Later,” “The Joke Was On Me,” and a novel, “Jacob Fishman’s Marriages.” See barrysfriedman. com and friedmanoftheplains.com.
From The Progressive Populist, July 1-15, 2024
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