Sen. Lindsey Graham sat on Alito's moot court - that's a no, no

[donsu]

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0602,roston,71634,6.html

Alito and His Coaches
For Supreme Court nominee, hearings are an inside game


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.''
-snip-
------------------------------------


arrogance

Lindsey thinks he can do want he wants - so did DeLay

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. anybody got an email address for Graham's office?

We need to inundate his office with demands that he recuse himself!!

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/658010

[acmejack]

2. Use this form

http://lgraham.senate.gov/index.cfm?mode=contactform

[robbedvoter]

7. He didn't attempt to conceal it - promissed confirmation while

dropping intimacy hints (that's when wifey broke down)

[ClassWarrior]

3. DUers with Senators on Judiciary should call them about this too. K&R.

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

4. /

[mb7588a]

5. feingold asked for a list of coaches. he'll get it tomorrow.

see this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2362645

[IndyOp]

13. Now my monitor is moist -

I actually kissed the damn picture of Russ Feingold.

:blush:

I am really, really tired of being scared and/or angry and/or I don't know.

:scared: :nuke: :wtf: :scared: :nuke: :wtf: :scared: :nuke: :wtf: :scared: :nuke: :wtf:

[mb7588a]

14. my girlfriend once said,

"You love Russ Feingold don't you?"

and I replied, "well, it's mostly platonic."

hehehehe

She wasn't thrilled.

[IndyOp]

19. It was possibly the 'mostly' she was concerned about...

"it's mostly platonic" could mean more than one thing... :)

[liveoaktx]

20. VIDEO

Even Lou Dobbs noticed Graham's obvious coaching

[annabanana]

6. I wish my profs had sat down with me and

given ME all the answers before MY exams.........

[robbedvoter]

8. You think the tears were part of the rehearsed effects?

[ClayZ]

9. Perhaps her neck hurt from keeping her nose

in the air? (I am bad!)

[flpoljunkie]

11. Give Lindsay Graham credit for her breakdown; he pulled all the strings to

make it happen. A shameless performance on his part. Yet, on CBS News news, the clueless and compromised beltway hack, Gloria Borger, blamed her breakdown on the Democrats, who she said had "gone too far."

Anyone else see how the other networks handled this episode?

The episode as described in the Washington Post...

Referring to the flap over the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) asked Alito, "Are you really a closet bigot?" Replied Alito, "I'm not any kind of bigot."

Graham said the issue smacked of "guilt by association" and emotionally told Alito, "I am sorry you had to go through this. I am sorry your family had to sit here and listen to this."

At that point, Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, began to weep and briefly left the hearing room.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011101120_pf.html

[the_spectator]

18. I think you're right.

I really don't think his wife was in on some kind of plan. I think it was Graham doing his best Kevin Nealon / "The Bob Waltman Show" impression - that SNL skit where Kevin Nealon as an interviewer who goes all out to make his interviewee cry - and then gives this goofy leer at the camera when he succeeds!

Give this one to Graham. And I must admit that after Kennedy's mis-step today in his own attempt to bring drama to the hearings, Graham picked the right day to do it. You win some, you lose some. But the pro-Alito forces won big today.

[renie408]

21. I sent him an email

asking if he thought these events were ethical. Since I live in South Carolina, he has to respond to me in writing if I ask him to. It will be interesting to see how he spins this one.

[Rockholm]

22. Her facial expressions were making me sick.

She was constantly smiling and smirking. Boo frigging hoo. How staged.

[AtomicKitten]

10. tsk, tsk, tsk.

I think the Dems should scream LOUD on this one.

[autorank]

12. Graham is an insufferable egomaniac and twit.

He pounded Clinton during impeachment, just pounded him at every moment.

I see no reason why he should not come under the same scrutiny.

He's a hyporcite politically, trying to warm up to Democrats. He's a guest at the table with a bag full of bile to hurl at his hosts.

He deserves no respect whatsoever.

[AlCzervik]

15. So what will happen with this, anything? Is it actually a violation of

senate rules? Any chance his get censured or anything?

[JerseygirlCT]

16. Is this what Feingold knows and is going for? nt

[HereSince1628]

23. It seems to be, Russ seems to have tripped on something

that particularly bothers him. I'm not sure if its about coaching by someone who shouldn't or whether it was coaching on particular issues.

[samhsarah]

17. is that even legal?

[azureblue]

24. Probably coached his wife to cry on cue, too

At the hearing where Mrs. Alito cried at the wrong cue, Rachel Brand was seated on Mrs. Alito's left, Dan Coats on her right.
Both Repug handlers.

RB: Rachel Brand is Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/20051216-2.html
Dan Coats:
Republican Representative and a Senator from Indiana, 1989-1999
In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate.

[Ian David]

25. you'll understand if any us come before a court...can't remember Abramoff

GRAHAM: I guess there's no rule against beating a dead horse, or we'd all have quit a long time ago.

(LAUGHTER)

So in the next 30 minutes, I'm going to ask you the same questions you've been asked for a whole day.

(LAUGHTER)

And I hope you'll understand if any us come before a court and we can't remember Abramoff, you will tend to believe us.

(LAUGHTER)

US Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's ... Archive
And I hope you'll understand if any us come before a court and we can't remember
Abramoff, you will tend to believe us. (LAUGHTER). (CROSSTALK) ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001418_pf.html


Daily Kos: The Real Abramoff Scandal: A Viewer's Guide Archive
So, next time you see any Abramoff-related news ... remember the context. ...
"And I hope you'll understand if any of us come before a court and we can't ...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/4/81623/06872