Background on the Alito CAP Issue....

[Junkdrawer]

In case you haven't heard, Alito's membership in a far-right-almost-KKK-like organization is quickly become the centerpiece of the hearings.

Alito proudly put his membership on a 1985 Reagan Admin. job application, but now says he doesn't even remember joining the group.

Well, the records of the group are currently at the Library of Congress in the archive of former National Review publisher William Rusher. Apparently the Republicans want to keep the records under seal and Kennedy has demanded a subpoena:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=108042&mesg_id=108042

People For the American Way has a backgrounder on the issue here:

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=20029

[Walt Starr]

1. That's disgusting!

Either the truth is revealed or the ruybber stamps grind democracy nin the ground.

OPEN UP THE RECORD!!!

The fucking Repukes kjust don't want the American people to know that a nominee for the SCOTUS LIED HIS FUCKING ASS OFF WHILE UNDER OATH DURING CONFIRMATION HEARINGS!!!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Alito showed a guilty conscience, I feel

when he denied even remembering belonging to this group. When he was 35, he put this on his resume, and I think there was like only one other group he listed (as per Al Franken). It would have been one thing if he'd joined, hadn't thought of it since college, and hadn't put it on a resume. But with what he did......

[Junkdrawer]

3. If the Rusher records show he was an active member, Alito is finished...

If they even show he renewed his membership once, he's cooked.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Are they having any luck getting those records?

I've read other threads where apparently they are covering up all of Alito's records in regards to CAP.

[Junkdrawer]

6. I don't think Kennedy would ask for a subpoena if they were public n/t

[notadmblnd]

17. The thing that blew my mind is that he remembered that

he didn't remember anything about his affiliation with this group in his application for Supreme Court Justice. Said he discovered it while going through papers. Just how does that happen?

[Junkdrawer]

4. THE 1985 APPLICATION IS HERE:

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/alito/8105.pdf

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. Thanks for that!

page 15 of 21

"Most recently, it has been an honor and source of personal satisfaction for me to serve in the office of the Solicitor General during President Reagan's administration and to help to advance legal positions in which I personally believe very strongly. I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allow and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."


:mad:

edit for spelling while pissed off...

[elsiesummers]

11. BTW, the membership is on pg 16 of the adobe file.

[im10ashus]

29. Thanks for that link!

Page 15 is very telling.

[Straight Shooter]

7. What was the political influence of CAP in 1985?

What was Reagan's philosphical position on CAP? Was Alito brown-nosing?

Seems to me he's stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. So many people to whom bush is close, and of course bush himself, have such con-venient memories, eh?

[LSK]

8. what he wrote in 1985 job application

"I am a member of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and a regular participant at its luncheon meetings and a member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton University, a conservative alumni group."

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/alito/8105.pdf - near the bottom

[Junkdrawer]

10. He used only two organizations to prove his conservative Bona Fides...

and now he can't even remember joining one of them. :eyes:

Does he think we're retarded?

[notadmblnd]

20. So it sounds like he was a member in 1985

he joined in 1972? Most clubs or organizations require a person to pay annual dues to maintain membership. How can we find out if that groups members had to re-up every year?

[Cooley Hurd]

12. K&R - the CAP issue needs to be addressed!

:kick:

[Junkdrawer]

13. .

[Junkdrawer]

34. .

[Junkdrawer]

36. .

[gkhouston]

14. honey, it *is* the KKK... with 440-thread count sheets n/t

[Junkdrawer]

15. LOL. Kennedy's excerpts were pretty bad, huh?

:hi:

[gkhouston]

16. Yup. Sounds like this could blow up

into a Bork-sized stink. :popcorn:

[Junkdrawer]

18. BREAKING: Rusher gives Kennedy the OK...

Staffers on route to the Library of Congress...

[theboss]

19. What I find weird is that I went to Princeton and never heard of CAP

I knew there was a movement in the 60s and 70s to keep the place all-male. And minorities have always faced resistance at all the Ivies. But I never actually heard this name.

I wonder if their Magazine begat the Spectator or the Tory (the right-wing magazines when I was there).

[ewagner]

21. Okay...GAME this out real quick

If Alito was coached to say that he had no "recollection" of either being a member or writing a separate statement in his application about CAP, then the Repubs either:

a: Didn't expect the CAP records to be released from the Library of Congress, and/or
b: Expected that the release would be forced but the records have already been "purged", and/or
c: Already knew there was noting in the records and set this up as a false trail for the dems to follow?

I'm bothered that Spectre caved in so easily......

[Junkdrawer]

22. Before Specter called Rusher, he talked to the NYT reporters...

who assured him nothing was there.

Kennedy boxed him in on this one and Specter is gambling that Kennedy's staffers won't find more than the NYT reporters.

[corkhead]

23. I think you give the sloppy arrogant repukes too much credit

I bet they didn't foresee this being an issue. Yipee!
In my desperate optimism, I think this could toast him!

:woohoo:

[msgadget]

24. Has anyone read this into the record??

For a JUDGE it's extremely, extremely partisan. The explanation is that he wrote it like that to get the job...? If so, it's equally disturbing to think a JUDGE will do what's expected of the administration! And, this says he was a 'regular participant' in this group's luncheons yet he now can't remember anything about it except how displeased he was with the anti-war activities on campus that impeded the ROTC.

[Junkdrawer]

25. 'regular participant' in the Federalist Society - just a member of CAP n/t

[msgadget]

26. Thanks,

though that's not much better, is it? Maybe all applications suck up like this. I mean, if, say, someone was applying under a democratic president would it be just as partisan? A conservative president will nominate a conservative jurist but this goes to belonging to an organization from which even Frist distanced himself.

[Junkdrawer]

27. Can you IMAGINE if we were asked to believe such a whopper from a DEM...

The talking heads would NEVER let this one go...

[malaise]

38. You are 100% correct n/t

[robbedvoter]

28. This sums up the BFEE credo:

* CAP opposed affirmative action for women and minorities but supported affirmative action for athletes and the children of alumni.
Back to the royal priviledges....

[warrens]

30. Up until this little bombshell

I was willing to cut the guy some slack. He certainly SEEMS to be a decent sort, unlike those harridans that Bush was threatening to nominate. But someone who mysteriously forgets a group he belonged to 20 years ago, when he was positively CROWING about that group 20 years ago, is a stone liar. And if he is willing to lie about this, what else has he got in his closet?

[shance]

31. kick

n/t

[Junkdrawer]

32. Republicans are now backtracking....

"Well, he didn't regularly attend meetings or write any articles for their magazine..."

They're trying to raise the bar.

Here's Alito's statement to Kyl:

KYL: And before the break, Senator Biden suggested that -- at least I understood him to suggest that there was no reason to belong to this organization CAP in 1985 because ROTC was safely on campus at that time.

Judge, let me ask you a question. Do you know what year you joined the CAP?

ALITO: I don't know, Senator. I've tried to wrack my memory about that.

But as I said, if I'd been active in my membership, I think I certainly would remember that.

ALITO: And if I had renewed the membership, I think I would remember that.

So my best reconstruction of this is it was probably sometime around the time when I wrote that statement.

KYL: Long after you were gone from the school?

ALITO: That's correct.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001087.html

So even Alito says he never renewed his 1985 membership. Can't wait to see what Kennedy's staff finds.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

[Junkdrawer]

33. Listening to Coburn(R), I'm getting a feeling they know we'll catch...

Alito in a Lie about CAP. Backtracking bigtime.

[mom cat]

35. I hope this sinks him.

[Festivito]

37. Perhaps Alito position sb under seal while those docs remain under seal.

It's a lifetime appointment. It can wait until we have all the information.

[Binka]

39. Alito Is Worth 2.1 Million Where Did The Money Come From?

In 1985 he was applying for a GS15 position. Hmmm. Check out the salaries on page 17. This does not add up. I concur with all here who think this thing is about to sink him. Kennedy has him on the ropes that is why his DimWit Herculon Plaid Couch wife cried yesterday. He's toast. Her dreams of being the belle of the Country Club are flushing down the toilet. Nasty racist shitdustbags!

[EFerrari]

40. There was a thread floating around here yesterday

that showed he inherited some Exom/Mobil stock from a family friend. :eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

41. Last report was that Kennedy's staff was given access late yesterday...

See Post #18. We *should* hear more today.