The Tony Snow Show Thread, Thursday, January 12, 2006

Tony Snow is back and better than ever! Tony's guests and topics on today's Tony Snow Show include:

Obsession for Men
It seems like a number of Democratic Senators are each obsessed with something they are convinced will bring Judge Alito down. Tony investigates this phenomenon.

Can They Do That?
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) expounded on a number of ways in which Democrats have been misleading regarding Alito. He'll elaborate with Tony.

News on the Barrett Report
Tony has breaking news about the Barrett Report's release. He will dish all!

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The reviews are in, and they’re not very flattering
Posted by: mcq

Or you could call this a case study on how not to procede if you wish to build popular sentiment toward dumping a Supreme Court nominee. Richard Cohen on Sen. Joe Biden:
The reviews for Biden's first crack at Samuel Alito, the humorless Supreme Court nominee, were murderous. The New York Times had Biden out on Page One — normally a position to kill for — only this time it was not a paean to his considerable merits, but an account of how it took him nearly three minutes of throat-clearing to ask his first question and then took the rest of his allocated 30 minutes just to get in another four. He concluded with about half a minute still left to him — something of a personal best that even he had to acknowledge.

[...]

The Washington Post had a similar account of Biden running off at the mouth. In that piece, Dana Milbank wrote that during Biden's 30-minute round of questioning, he ``spoke about his own Irish-American roots, his 'Grandfather Finnegan,' his son's application to Princeton (he attended the University of Pennsylvania instead, Biden said), a speech the senator gave on the Princeton campus, the fact that Biden is 'not a Princeton fan,' and his views on the eyeglasses of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.''
Robert Novak on Sen. Edward Kennedy:
Edward M. Kennedy, the 73-year-old liberal lion of the Senate, did not so much roar as huff and puff Tuesday, as he faced Judge Samuel Alito. He and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who had spent weeks preparing for Alito's Supreme Court confirmation hearing seemed to be shooting blanks at President Bush's nominee.

Sen. Kennedy appeared to have lost his fastball in the 19 years since he eviscerated nominee Robert Bork. But Alito is a deceptively more difficult target. While Bork appeared a flamboyant scholar eager to expound his worldview, Alito came over as a cautious lawyer dealing in fine print and footnotes. Republican senators had feared the nominee's uninspiring style would undo him, but they now feel it actually carried the day.
And Sen. Chuck Schumer:
Schumer, at the end of the committee table in seniority, had to spend the entire day Tuesday watching his colleagues shooting blanks before he got his chance to fire the real thing. Schumer was well prepared, with a senatorial third degree of Alito demanding repeatedly to know whether he believed in a constitutional protection of abortion. That question led off a harsh, carefully scripted interrogation of the nominee. It made Chuck Schumer look mean and nasty, but that hardly derailed Sam Alito.
Joan Vennochi:
Alito entered the hearing process with the burden of following John Roberts. The previous nominee dazzled the Senate Judiciary Committee during his successful quest to become chief justice. Alito is not as crisp or intimidating. And for the most part, his average-guy demeanor helps him. Alito sounds conversational and knowledgeable as he discusses cases he ruled upon. He also appears human, from the occasional quaver in his Garden State-accented voice to the balding circle of scalp visible when the camera shoots from behind.

His interrogators often sound arrogant and sanctimonious. That doesn't mean questions from Democrats about abortion or the limits on executive power are meritless. But, particularly on Tuesday, they were posed so poorly and loquaciously that Alito won, or at least, never lost a round.
Debra Saunders on Kennedy:
On Wednesday, Kennedy seemed like a crazy man when he suggested that the committee subpoena records relating to Alito and the Princeton alumni club. I know some people who don't buy Alito's "no specific recollection of that organization" answer. For my part, the older I get, the more credible I find it when other people claim lapses of memories.

In the end, this is all about smear. Some Democratic senators, like Dianne Feinstein, are ready to stick to the issues. I respect her questions. Alas, others — like Kennedy — dive deep into the sewer to make Alito look bad. They put what he did or said decades ago under a microscope. If they can't make Alito seem racist or sexist, they dig for some association, no matter how negligible, with a racist/sexist group. If Alito says he wasn't aware of how insidious the group was, he's lying — or, critics intone with knowing cynicism, it's fishy.
Well you get the picture. As Billy Hollis noted in comments to this post:
I never know if the Republicans are lucky or smart. I must say, though, that with both Roberts and Alito, the GOP's "give them enough rope" strategy has worked spectacularly well.

The Democratic Party would have been better off if these gasbags had kept their mouth shut and just let this thing go through. Instead they have managed to look surly, mendicious, and idiotic, all at the same time. Quite a feat.
I think this, given the bipartisan leanings of the particular opinion writers I've included, is pretty much consensus. One wonders if it is possible now for the Democrats on the committee to actually drop the ego and the arrogance and get serious about serious business. In the end, given the theatrics (loved the blowup between Specter and Kennedy which Dale paraphrased), it seems clear that in reality they have nothing with which to credibly stop the Alito nomination from proceding. They're very frustrated about that, and it shows.

For links to entire articles, go to: http://www.qando.net/Default.aspx?tabid=38

At Long Last, They Have No Shame
I left blogger row yesterday reluctantly, just as the outrageous actions of the Democratic caucus on Judiciary hit its nadir. The smear tactics trotted out to derail the nomination of Judge Alito over the past few weeks had hit their nadir when Ted Kennedy demanded a subpoena for the William Rusher papers to determine whether the National Review publisher may have written something about CAP and Alito. Never mind that this was an entirely off-subject line of questioning from the beginning; Alito's own hiring record proved that he has no animus towards equal opportunity for women or minorities, and the Prospect itself had a woman (Laura Ingraham) and a minority (Dinesh D'Souza) as its editors in chief. Never mind that Alito has had decades of dedicated public service with an impeccable record of excellence, including fifteen years on the appellate court. Never mind that he has not been called before Congress to defend himself on charges but for confirmation to move up to the Supreme Court by invitation of the President.

When what should be a simple confirmation process reduces family members to tears, it shows that one party has degenerated into a secular Inquisition. And let me remind you that it was this party that, on more than one occasion, elected a former Klansman to the post of Majority Leader -- a man who as recently as three years ago defended the use of the "n-word".

In fact, most of the Senators from that caucus are responsible for that election of Byrd to his leadership posts.

I would assume that under their definition, Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, and perhaps Schumer are all racists and genocidists. They're certainly tied much closer to those beliefs than Samuel Alito, and I invite them to explain the difference to the American people.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

Love this one:

According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip-kiss prints.

Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers, and then there are educators.

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