Posted on 01/26/2006 10:22:20 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
On 12 January, 2006, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Thrust into the Limelight, and for Some A Symbol of Washington’s Bite.” It was a mini-biography of Mrs. Martha-Ann Alito, and it purported to explain the reasons for Mrs. Alito’s tears during her husband Samuel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It blamed them on a follow-up question by Senator Lindsay Graham, rather than on the verbal savaging of Judge Alito by the Democrats on the Committee, led by Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Times should have gotten the story right, because one of the three reporters on the story was in their New Jersey Bureau, and based in Caldwell. But they didn’t. Here are the operative paragraphs from that article on the cause of her tears:
She has sat behind him [her husband] all week, a pleasant-looking woman in sensible clothes, peering through rimless glasses as Democrats grilled Judge Alito about his investments and his affiliation with a conservative Princeton alumni group and Republicans tried to provide him some relief.
On Wednesday, one of those Republicans, Mr. Graham, tried to mock the Democrats with a question about the alumni group, which opposed affirmative action.
"Are you really a closet bigot?" Mr. Graham asked, at which point Mrs. Alito drew her hands to her face and left the hearing room weeping.
Source: http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20C14FD3C5B0C708DDDA80894DE404482
As the article explained, Mrs. Alito is “fiercely protective” of her husband. And she was upset by the attacks on him as if he were dishonest, or a bigot, or a poor judge. But there was an additional reason, much older and much darker than what happened at that hearing. It concerns the fact that Senator Kennedy led the attack against Judge Alito.
Mrs, Alito was born Martha-Ann Bomgardner in Ft. Knox, Kentucky. The family moved with her father’s profession as an air traffic controller to New Jersey, where she attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Kentucky, she returned to New Jersey and became a librarian in the US Attorney’s office, where she met her husband.
Through her husband’s family, she learned of their personal friendship with another young woman who was also an only child. This other woman and her family were staunch Catholics. On occasion, they attended the same church in Roseland, New Jersey, as the Alitos, Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, one of only two churches in that town of 5,298. The Alitos live in Caldwell, population 7,584, where this other woman graduated from Caldwell College, probably as a commuter student from her home, rather than a resident student.
From the personal memories of this woman that Mrs. Alito got from her husband’s family, and from her own understanding of what it means to be an only child, Mrs. Alito knew of the worst thing that any human being could do to another. She also heard of its impact on the family.
That other woman’s name was Mary Jo Kopeckne. She was killed by Senator Ted Kennedy, in an auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, on 18 July, 1969. That was the other reason for Mrs. Alito’s tears.
[Author’s notes: The author did not bother any of the three families referred to here in writing this. All the information was gathered from reputable Internet sources. If the Times puts a competent reporter on the story, it can find the same information. It should also then apologize for its original article, in which the three reporters presented their personal assumptions as facts on the cause of Mrs. Alito’s upset at the hearing.]
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Great post.
..... so well said. Thank you.
I'd like to hear it. Freepmail if you don't want to post it.
It was abundantly clear to anyone with eyes that Lindsay Graham's questions were not the cause of Mrs. Alito's tears, except in as much as they provided a moment of needed relief. After days of the most vicious, mean-spirited questioning imaginable, Senator Graham finally at long last treated Judge Alito with respect and decency. It was the relief of this moment that caused Mrs. Alito to cry at this time.
Implying that Senator Graham's question upset Mrs. Alito is like blaming the arrival of the fire truck for the fire. The New York Times knew this, but was doing it's level best to protect the Democrat Senators who had behaved so badly. This paragraph, where the Times blames Senator Graham for Mrs. Alito's upset, should be exhibit #1 in any discussion of bias at the Times, IMHO. It is so out of step with obvious reality that the only explanation is a over-arching political agenda.
John, you'll eventually be forced to publish your research in response to the predictable outcry, so you might as well publish it here, now.
Coming soon to a cinema near you: "Lard Ass Kennedy in "A Bridge Too Far"...
Dead made posting about this connection weeks ago.
If that is the case, then this is simply a six-degrees-of-separation trivia question and you have made some powerful enemies for marginal purpose. Sure it is interesting to those of us who revile the abomination from the Bay State, but not breaking news. More like a Paul Harvey piece.
The extent of family relationship is stated as:
One has to infer from the above, that Judge Alito's parents were friends with Mary Jo's parents. For the inference to be correct requires coordination of timing. In particular that the Alito, Sr. and Kopechne families had occasion to cross paths at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Roseland.
And even then, merely "crossing paths" does not necessarily result in extended conversation, or the more extended relationship commonly referred to as "friendship."
Thanks!
OMG
Too bad Jack Ruby was in Dallas in 1963...
I agree with you snugs. I think just the fact that a cretin like kennedy could cast aspersions on her husband put her on the edge. It was a choice of either marching up to him and slapping those jowels into next week or dissolving into tears of rage/hurt.
The bottles pouring was a nice added touch!
It's a very sad piece of history to be sure. Thanks for doing the research and posting this on FreeRepublic.
In the 1960 it was very rural, roseland had many farms.
What a lovely looking statement. Looks even better in LARGE, BOLD text.
BUMP
BUMP
BUMP
I can't speak for Congressman Billybob, but when I first posted the information I had, I did not mean to imply that Mrs. Alito's tears were for Mary Jo.
I have no doubt that Mrs. Alito's tears were from frustration, rage, and disappointment with the way her husband was treated. But all of those emotions had to be compounded further by the fact that man who was treating her husband with such disgraceful venom and slander was somebody whom she knew, for better than forty years, to be a particularly dispicable human being through a personal family connection.
I would think that that personal and emotional background probably raised the level of frustration and rage by a considerable degree.
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