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 Washingtons Bite. It was a mini-biography of Mrs. Martha-Ann Alito, and it purported to explain the reasons for Mrs. Alitos tears during her husband Samuels 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 didnt. 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 fathers profession as an air traffic controller to New Jersey, where she attended Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly. After earning bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Kentucky, she returned to New Jersey and became a librarian in the US Attorneys office, where she met her husband.
Through her husbands 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 husbands 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 womans 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. Alitos tears.
[Authors 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. Alitos upset at the hearing.]
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Any man who could do what this besotted disgrace did and sit on an ETHICS panel, judging other people, is totally beyond contempt.
The Kennedy Klan are the lowest of the low, from their pro-NAZI bootledger Daddy on down to the most recent urchin in the Klan.
I only offered info on any questions you may have. What are you questioning specifically?
"No wonder Massachusettes is Cuba without the sugar cane."
Beautiful. I have to remember that.
Thank you for the ping Cal and the wonderful memories of how a lot of us grew up. Now, those were the days!
And a major thank you for jogging memories of what fat teddy did!
I can't wait to see him squirming!
"I also have no idea just how Sen. Edward Kennedy sleeps at night. "
Total lack of conscience is a great sleeping pill.
Should have called it "Sham-a-lot" instead of Camelot.
Did you have a man that come every other week to sharpen knives?
That is unheard of now!
"He is dying."
Apparently its taking a long time. I guess God wants him to let him know he's dying.
Excerpt
"Q: And it was your role in that attack that eventually made you a target of Nidal, correct?
A: A month later, Abu Nidal published a list of 15 people he intended to assassinate. He made it public. In fact, he did a little press release on the whole thing. And my name was on that list, which surprised a lot of people. You'd understand why the president was on the list, or the director of central intelligence, or the national security advisor. Their names were all public, but mine wasn't. And there was a lot of speculation inside the government as to how they got my name, because I was indeed in on the planning for the attack.
Q: But you weren't his only target, were you?
A: The following year, on Feb. 11, the FBI detected a message that was sent from Tripoli, Libya, to the People's Committee for Libyan Students in McLean, Va. Seven terrorists of an Abu Nidal cell that was operating in McLean got the message. They went to a self-storage facility, got from the self-storage facility some rocket-propelled grenade launchers and grenades, hand grenades, explosives, machine guns, and took a map to my house and a diagram of my house that they got from the local zoning authority, which, by the way, you can get anywhere in America. I think you have to pay a quarter to get it.
On the diagram of the house they had written the names of my children, which bedroom each one of them was in, and even the name of the dog, a Labrador retriever named Max, all in Arabic. The FBI arrested them about seven miles from our house because they were able to detect it. It's a great success story for the FBI.
Q: And then?
A: In the aftermath of that, the terrorists were arraigned before a federal magistrate very late at night, very early in the morning. The federal magistrate would not allow them to be booked on anything other than a weapons charge because the FBI did not want to reveal the sensitive intelligence that had tipped them to the attack. And so, in spite of the protests of the U.S. attorney, a man named Henry Hudson, the judge allowed them to be booked on only a weapons charge. About an hour later, a gentleman showed up from the Yugoslav Embassy here in Washington, D.C., which at the time housed the Libyan mission, with three and a half million dollars in cash, and they walked.
Q: And how did the government handle a development like that?
A: The FBI then came back to my house, picked up my wife and children and me, put us on an airplane and flew us down to Camp LeJeune, N.C. They hid us down there for two weeks. They then brought us back to our home where we lived with 35 federal agents who were sent there to protect us. And I will tell you, they drink a lot of coffee, my friend (laughs). They literally stayed with us 24 hours a day, seven days a week until I retired from the Marines."
Whatever the connection...the fact remains that Kennedy is wetbrain.
Mrs. Alito should not have dignified this neanderthal with her tears...but what's done is done. I empathize.
I went to the same middle school as janet lynn!!
I was a midwest country girl growing up in a town of 500! We had an ice man though, and a milk man.
My days consisted of riding my bicycle, along with my best friend, about 2 miles out of town to stony creek. We would fish, pick wildflowers, play, eat a little lunch and then bike back home by 3. Never a worry about a thing.
Now, there are 2 registered sex offenders living in this tiny town and children no longer can roam freely. sigh
Thanks for this article.
Regardless of why she was crying, I'm sure BOTH she and her husband were aware of the irony and the injustice of Mr. Alito being cross-examined by this sterling example of putresecent human scum.
Also... My older brother wrestled in college with a team mate who wrestled for Denny Hasert in high school!! I have a "connection" to "The Coach!"
She was overwhelmed by the kindness of Sen. Graham after her honorable husband was savaged and accused by dishonorable 'men.'
I'm sure that if she could have stopped crying, she would have. This whole thing had to be overwhelming............even if you knew it was coming.
I disagree. If it could be established that Kennedy was even remotely aware of a possible link between the Alito family and the Kopechnes, and he decided to attack Alito because of this, it would be very serious.
I should have mentioned that it was Abu Nidal who at the time was the most dangerous terrorist in the world. Thanks for posting that here for those who didn't know.
A leftist friend took the time to debunk the Ollie North urban legend in a mass e-mail to a huge group of people. So I took the time to hit "Reply All" and tell people just what kind of jihadist Abu Nidal was and that he took refuge in Iraq.
Boy, did that tick her off!
I know it's been a long time but wouldn't it be great if someone took a new interest in Mary Jo's death and wrote a best-selling book about it. It's amazing how little press it got back then. Although, my understanding is that when Kennedy later tried to run as the Dem pres. candidate people would show up at his events with signs that said "Murderer". Apparently, not everyone forgot the indident. It would be great if something like that would happen now.
Good for you. That Ollie North episode ought to turn everyone's blood frigid at the stark savagery of our enemy.
It is disgusting how kids have become prisoners.
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