I ask everyone to review minutes 2:46:00 and 2:47:00 of "Samuel Alito Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Hearings - Day 3, Afternoon Session (1/11/2006)". This is available at
C-SPAN.
Join me in the extended body.
I also ask everyone to view the 2:09 video clip entitled "Alito's Wife Tears Up" at
Yahoo News. Please pay particular attention to seconds 26-30.
During this portion of the hearing, Lindsey Graham enumerates the names of Congresspeople who were members of various Princeton eating clubs. Because Graham was challenging Democrats who claim Alito's affiliation with CAP disqualifies him from serving as a Justice on the Supreme Court, this act was utterly gratuitous. For an eating club is not a club one voluntarily joins after graduation. But as he is wont to do, he charges his diatribe with a bit of humor, noting how he will investigate his House and Senate colleagues for their affiliations with these eating clubs, and he predictably elicited laughter from those in the audience who felt Kennedy and others were exaggerating Alito's troubled and sordid past. So much for Lindsey Graham's base humor.
But I note this humor, however inappropriate it may be, as it did in fact lighten the charged atmosphere of hearings. Graham proceeds to question Alito about the extent of his involvement with CAP, and he again jokes about Alito's denunciation of that organization's statements, stating in his typically jocund manner that Alito deplores those statements because he desires a seat on the Supreme Court. Again, more audience laughter, more Lindsey Graham irony. And Alito's wife, who can be seen in the clip available at Yahoo, has a grin plastered across her face.
Then Graham suddenly asks: "Are you a closet bigot?" Alito replies: "No sir, I'm not." We are eight seconds into the Yahoo clip. Alito's wife at this point glances to her left, nods, and then proceeds to stare at Lindsey Graham. She seems relatively pleased, and she listens intently to Graham expatiate on why he believes Alito's affiliation with CAPS is irrelevant. But 23 seconds into the clip, when Graham says the word "reems," she begins to cry.
This cry, in my opinion, is staged. Yes, I believe it is planned. Notice Graham, now twenty-seven seconds into the segment on Yahoo, has "lost his quotes." And the wife begins to cry.
Alito's wife and those interrogating him know his wife is always captured in the frame the moment Alito occupies the entire screen of any television or computer. She is reliably above his left shoulder. And we also understand Kennedy's relentless persuit of Alito's affiliation with CAPs will be exploited by Republicans and others as an example of Democratic desperation and hostility. Also keep in mind that there was a break between the line of questioning including Kennedy and Biden and that which included Graham. And why the glance to her left? And why did Lindsey Graham pause? And why were the tears so sudden? And how can we justify them if in fact Graham was peppering the atmosphere with what many would call humor?
And even worse, why is this considered news? Why are news organizations discussing the tears of Alito's wife?
I believe this is staged, and I am asking for your opinion.
Again, focus on minutes 2:46:00 and 2:47:00 of C-SPAN's stream, where Alito's wife is not captured within the frame, and pay particular attention to the first 34 seconds of the clip available at yahoo.
THE TEARS OF ALITO'S WIFE WERE STAGED.