Posted on 01/11/2006 11:11:20 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON, D.C.--In the first hours of Samuel Alito's Senate confirmation hearings on Monday, Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, may very well have irreparably compromised himself.
At the hearing, Graham told Alito, nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, that he had already decided in Alito's favor. "I don't know what kind of vote you're going to get, but you'll make it through. It's possible you could talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it. So I won't even try to challenge you along those lines."
That certainly ought to be the case. Graham is one of a group of Republicans who have been coaching Alito behind the scenes. The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reported before the hearings began:
"On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the 'gang of 14' who sits on Judiciary, joined a so-called moot court session at the White House.''
The coaching session for Alito has raised a few eyebrows.
"Coaching a judicial nominee behind-the-scenes is not the proper role for a Judiciary Committee member who must subsequently sit in judgment on that nominee," writes Think Progress, a project of the American Progress Action Fund. "It could be a violation of the ethical duties of a senator."
Writing about the Alito situation, Think Progress cites Senate Rule 37 in the Senate Ethics Manual. The rule says: "No Member, officer, or employee shall engage in any outside business or professional activity or employment for compensation which is inconsistent or in conflict with the conscientious performance of official duties."
Think Progress further cites the ethics manual, saying that language has been interpreted as prohibiting "compensated employment or uncompensated positions on boards, commissions, or advisory councils where such service could create a conflict with an individual's Senate duties due to appropriation, oversight, authorization, or legislative jurisdiction as a result of Senate duties."
If this is true, how can Graham make an impartial decision about Alito based on what he learns at the Alito hearings? Graham has already made up his mind.
Why are you posting crap from a leftist rag that has an obvious agenda of smeering Alito?
Oh what a bunch of hooey. Senators say this sort of thing all the time.
That's fine. But if we're going to hold Lindsey accountable, then I also expect each of the 45 Dem senators who rendered public verdicts before the 1999 trial of impeached and disgraced Willy J. Clinton to be held accountable. And since we can no longer throw the lying sleazeball out of office, I'll settle for some significant jail time in a maximum security facility.
If this is true, how can Graham make an impartial decision about Alito based on what he learns at the Alito hearings? Graham has already made up his mind.
He’s not making an “impartial decision.”
Nobody in the room is making an impartial decision.
Straws, reaching for straws....
We have Sen Kennedy et al coordinating PR with outside Liberal Pressure groups to stop Judicary appointments and NOTHING is said. NOW they are upset because it LOOKS like a Republican did the same thing to get one thru???
The Village Voice? C'mon!
They're desperate so they're reaching.....
Just kidding.
Absurd. Casting at straws. All judicial nominees have minders. We'd have to go back to remember who was the minder for the last six or seven nominees. I'm pretty sure they all had someone on the committee. This happens every day with every type of presidential appointment and is more clearly a part of the job they are being elected and paid to do than a whole bunch of other stuff that they spend time on.
Great googly moogly. Do they have any idea how infantile they sound?!
Who funds the "American Progress Action Fund?"
They're out of ideas. They're going for anything at all that might give them some hope.
And, HOW do they know what Lindsey Graham said? Did HE tell them? And, if not, from where did they get that info?
If a thousand bears fart in the woods... does it still stink?
BS
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