Conventional wisdom would have you believe that Republicans are real
tough guys;

great hulking giants of men who laugh in the face of danger and fart
in the living room of Death as they boldly swing their nuts across the
land.

Conventional wisdom is, sadly, wrong.

The truth is that if you show a Republican a picture of an Arab he'll
cling to the pantlegs of Big Daddy Bush wailing, "Please! Tap my phone
lines! Take away my rights! Rip up the Constitution! Anything to
protect me from the infinitesimally small chance of being killed by
that scary bearded man! Oh no, I think I did a dirty bomb in my
pants."

That same, uh, toughness was on display again last week during Samuel
Alito's Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Alito faced several questions from Democrats about his association
with the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), an organization formed
to, among other things, keep women and minorities out of the Ivy
League university.

Alito graduated from Princeton in 1972 and claimed membership of CAP
when he applied for a Justice Department job in 1985.

Curiously, the nominee suffered several bouts of amnesia while
attempting to answer questions about CAP, but hey - they say if you
can remember the '70s, you weren't there.

And anyway, if he wasn't a member of CAP then he only lied on his job
application.

And everyone does that, right?

It wouldn't be fair if there was a higher standard for, uh, United
States Supreme Court justices.

But the real drama began after this exchange:


LINDSEY GRAHAM:

If you don't mind the suspicious nature that I have - it's that you
may be saying that because you want to get on the Supreme Court; that
you're disavowing this now because it doesn't look good. And really,
what I would look at to believe you're not - and I'm going to be very
honest with you - is: How have you lived your life? Are you really a
closet bigot?

ALITO:

I'm not any kind of a bigot. I'm not.

GRAHAM:

No, sir, you're not. And you know why I believe that? Not because you
just said it - but that's a good enough reason - because you seem to
be a decent, honorable man. ... Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've
had to go through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit
here and listen to this.


Boy, that's some tough questioning right there.

I'm glad Republican senators are taking this "advice and consent"
thing seriously.

But anyway, once Graham was done inserting his nose into the nominee's
*****, Alito's wife, perhaps literally bored to tears, broke down and
had to be escorted from the room.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060111/ap_on_go_su_co/alito_wife_2

And the next thing you know, Republicans were fighting each other to
see who could get in front of a TV camera first to blame the Democrats
for making Mrs. Scalito cry.

Gee, I bet that wasn't planned in advance.

Of course, the ever fair-and-balanced media promptly took it upon
themselves to rain contempt upon the Democrats for being such horrible
worrible meanies. http://mediamatters.org/items/200601120006

CNN's Ed Henry said Democrats were "hitting below the belt." CBS's
Gloria Borger pulled out the old "some say" card, noting that "some
say" Democrats "went over the line."

(Who say, Gloria? You say?)

Meanwhile, Fox News ran a segment lovingly entitled "Will vicious Dems
pay for driving Alito's wife to tears?"

So much for Republicans being tough guys.

One sharp glance from Ted Kennedy and they fall to pieces.


From The Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Harry