Captain's Quarters, predictably enough, defends Alito's membership in CAP, explaning that it was an unholy combination of youthful indiscretion and harmless membership sans obligation or responsibility. This is complete nonsense and irrelevant if the issue concerns the assessment of Alito as a candidate for the supreme court (though it's nice to see even a winger admit that it's SOME form of indiscretion). [Crossposted at
CatchingFlies]
Here's the captain:
The Times found that Alito played no leadership role, provided no funding, and in general only allowed his name to continue to exist on their rolls until the group went defunct two years after that rather stupid letter went out to its membership. He listed the membership on a resume as an example of a conservative group that reflected his politics at the time, but the NYT doesn't explain whether that was before or after the letter went out that year, or whether Alito had even bothered reading missives from CAP.
Let's be clear about this: he stayed on the rolls until the group went under. He didn't remove himself as a member, he didn't bother to object when a group of which he was a member sent out an admittedly "stupid" letter to parents of Princeton students AND he used his membership in the group as one of a number of affiliations, associations, and accomplishments qualifying him to serve in the Reagan administration. Why put it on your resume if it's just one of those memberships that mean nothing, to which you give no material or moral support? I've worked jobs that I would never put on a resume becuase they are insiginificant and do not define me. But if the state of Ohio decides to gut higher education and I'm thrust once again into the job market, my experience cleaning grease off tiles might come in useful, and I'll put that on my resume because I think it might impress someone. That Alito put this on his resume is significant and meaningful.
It's clear that Alito doesn't like quotas, the reason CAP formed in 1972...
That's like saying that the reason the Klan formed was to preserve Southern culture. CAP formed, according to people who were there at the time, because too many minorities, women, and gays were flooding Princeton's gates.
...nor did he like the liberalization impulse on his college campus.
Efforts to undo a legacy of white male privilege at Princeton is a "liberalization impulse," it's true. And now let's hear his reasons for not liking it. I would like to hear from Alito precisely what it is that motivated his membership in CAP to begin with, and what motivated his use of that membership to curry favor with race-baiting elements in the Reagan administration.
It's also clear that his level of outrage over these issues must have remained pretty darned small if all he did was engage in a membership.
Was the size of Alito's outrage in question? Does "engaging in a membership" mean that levels of outrage are "small"? How the fuck does Captain Quarter know this? If I sign up with the local Nazi dimwits, giving them my name as a "member" but without marching around residential neighborhoods calling children 'monkeys', does that make my outrage "small"? Maybe his outrage was Giganormous and
motivated his membership in the group...and then motivated his desire to work for the Reagan administration...and then motivated Bush's appointment of Wallacito to the supreme court.
Even his friends within CAP can hardly recall his membership or any effort on his part to support the organization.
Uh, he had friends within CAP? Who? How close? And besides, it's irrelevant: Alito put his membership on a resume to try to get a job. In fact, this makes things worse for Alito. An alternative explanation is that he kept his membershp under wraps for years, giving neither moral nor material support because he knew, and perhaps his friends will attest to this, that this membership was controversial, unpopular, and made him seem, oh, undemocratic. But then wingnuts get ahold of the justice department, and suddenly his membership looks like something worth promoting. If Nader is ever elected president, you'll see Ralph Reed listing his activites in PETA, mark my words.
Nor does the opening paragraphs of this article tell readers about the breadth of the conservative issues that CAP addressed. Agree with them or not, CAP took on many issues with the Princeton administration, including abortion counseling, the right of free assembly, and defending private "eating clubs", to which Alito had never belonged anyway. As Dinesh D'Souza, who edited CAP's newsletter at one time, tells the NYT, Alito's membership might mean something, but it would be difficult to say what.
You just said "what": he was against abortion counseling for undergraduates, he defended the presence of private "male only" eating clubs (forgot to include that little tidbit, Cap'n) on a college campus. And the fact that he didn't belong to the club kinda makes things worse for Alito. I don't belong to any Jew-hating country clubs, but were I to support their policies in the abstract, so much the worse for me.
The last time I checked, Ruth Bader Ginsburg made her career as a general counsel for the ACLU, a group which has defended neo-Nazis in court in First Amendment cases. Did that make her a neo-Nazi? Of course not, and she may not have even supported their efforts to defend supremacists. (Some members have resigned in protest over the years when the issue arises.)
Defending is one thing, claiming membership is another. And I appreciate the work the Captain is doing to help me make the case that his membership is significant, meaningful, and reason to drop his nomination.
Perhaps the people at PFAW should concentrate more on Alito's extensive track record on the bench than the alumni group he joined but hardly supported in his youth.
How old was he when he listed it on his resume?
It would appear that they have not had any luck finding issues on which to deny him confirmation from his excellent work as a jurist, and instead have settled on hysteria to derail his nomination.
SN has had no problems finding issues and has
blogged about them extensively. This nomination is unacceptable. No
hysteria here.