Saturday, January 14, 2006

A tumbler of Old Bombast.

Reliable Republican Bob Maginnis of Spot’s hometown sat down one evening recently with a tumbler of Old Bombast and penned this letter of admiration to Judge Samuel Alito which was printed in the Star Tribune:
I want to congratulate Judge Samuel Alito for his professional bearing and astutely reasoned responses during three long days of what amounted to a Democrat-led inquisition.

With the bloviating of Joe Biden, the buffoonery of Ted Kennedy and the bickering of Chuck Schumer, they tried to pin "guilt by association" and "bigotry" on a man who rebuffed them at every turn.

Judge Samuel Alito will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice!

BOB MAGINNIS, EDINA

Bob has a literary bent, you must admit, boys and girls. Check out the clever alliteration in the penultimate paragraph. Spotty says Alito did rebuff the senators, as in brush off, disregard, ignore, or maybe even flip off.

For a more, er, nuanced, view of the hearings Spot recommends Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne.

And there was something odd about the gap in Alito's memory concerning his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a right-wing group whose publications said some rather unpleasant things about blacks, women and gays. Alito didn't remember anything, but if he did remember something, his membership might have been related to Princeton's decision to throw the ROTC off campus, even though parts of ROTC later returned. The first public reference I can find to the ROTC rationale came not from anything Alito has said but from talking points put out Monday by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.
My biggest worries about Alito are how he would rule on presidential power, workers' rights, civil rights and regulatory issues. Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor, has noted that Alito follows the law when it's clear, but he almost always tilts toward his conservative predilections when the law is less settled. [italics are Spot’s]

Something odd, indeed. Spot, as well as others, including our friends at Clever Peasantry, say not merely odd, but rather unbelievable.

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