Official Alito Hearing Thread – Day 3 – Thread 7

[Pacifist Patriot]

Thread 1
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Thread 2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Thread 3
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Thread 4
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Thread 5
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Thread 6
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=109206&mesg_id=109206

[LSK]

1. thanks for new thread

So we are going to get the CAP records. Wooo!!!1

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. The cynic in me says we're going to get the records they feel like giving.

The recipient can't control what the giver sends. :)

[LSK]

9. I thought of that too

Maybe he was voted President of CAP in the 70s lol

[realFedUp]

2. Thanks PP....DaWhiner on now....

[babylonsister]

3. So what's in those papers, and will this hold up the hearing? nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Not sure. It could possibly confirm whether or not

Alito was an active enough member of CAP to where his amnesia claims would be blown out of the water.

[radio4progressives]

25. feinstein up now...NT

[Ksec]

4. Specter dropped about 50% on my ethics yardstick

I dont believe he forgot about his call from Kennedys guy.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. He's not even on my ethics yardstick right now.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Yeah, what is this

crap? I'd always heard he was a moderate straight shooter for a Repuke. Somebody in the BFEE has his balls in a vise. Squirm? Slither? SG

[FreedomAngel82]

37. I've also heard with Spector

he respects the Constitution. :shrug:

[gkhouston]

22. nor mine.

But I'd like to introduce him to it. :spank:

[realFedUp]

10. He's better than the Hatch-It but has his failings...

[realFedUp]

8. Does anyone have a sense of when this committee will vote?

witnesses tomorrow...vote next week in the committee?

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Some pundit on C-Span

said the Dems could and might drag it out for another week. SG

[babylonsister]

13. Excellent! Dragging out is good, if only to piss off the admin. nt

[hang a left]

14. Would be wonderful if the filibuster started say on.....

January 31st???

[lavenderdiva]

15. did you all hear Specter say something about an article written in

either a newspaper or magazine, that these Caps documents would confirm or deny? Did anyone catch where this actual article is?

on edit, I rewound the TV to find it was an New York Times article, November 26th. Specter says Alito, in the article, gave no indication that Alito was not a major donor, not an active leader of the group, and 2 of his classmates who were involved did not remember Alito playing a role. I'd be interested in reading the article firsthand.... I'll try to find it on-line.

[Pacifist Patriot]

19. I think he said the New York Times.

[CornField]

21. I'm not sure what you're referring to

but Specter was talking about an article in the New York Times from late November 2005. (I think he said Nov. 22, but I'm not sure)

[Surya Gayatri]

16. What about stopping protestors

from approaching the Pres.? DeWhine hasn't mentioned the freedom to demand redress of grievances. What about vetting public gatherings for the Pres?

[CottonBear]

17. I called a gov't librarian at UGA & she's calling a LoC librarian to ask

if the sealed CAP documents can be viewed by the US Senators for the purpose of the SCOTUS nominee hearings. The UGA librarian knows the head of Anglo-American cataloging at the Library of Congress. She's going to call the LoC librarian and pose the question. :)

She's going to e-mail answer to me! How cool is that?
I'll let y'all know what I find out. :)

edit: I used to work in a research library and I'm sort of a library geek! I've got lots of librarian friends. They sure are handy people to know!

[realFedUp]

20. very cool!

I like 8 degrees of separation.

[CottonBear]

24. Unfortunately, there was a fire at UGA's main library a few years back

(set under mysterious circumstances, homeless guy charged and aquitted, long story...) anyhoo, they lost a lot of US Gov't Documents in the fire and had to get copies/replacement from the LoC. UGA is a regional depository of US Gov't Docs and the depository for GA Go'vt docs.

[realFedUp]

38. hmmmmm. nt

[Wilber_Stool]

107. Never piss off a librarian.

[Jane Austin]

18. I just want to SCREAM.

What is it with Biden? He rambles around for twenty minutes, puts on a Princeton baseball cap, then tells Alito he's a great guy.

G--dammit! This is our future he's pissing around with.

Somebody needs to slap that jerk into reality.

I've been sitting here with tears rolling down my cheeks ever since I heard Biden's complete waste of his question time.

[Surya Gayatri]

23. Joe only has eyes

for his future WH run. All of his actions are oriented towards that end and keeping his corporate backers on board.

[nickinSTL]

43. and he's doing a fine job of sinking that bid

no Dem who pays any attention to this will support him.

[Skidmore]

29. Good old boys to the end.

Women are going to have to do suffrage all over again by the time this bunch of yahoos get done slapping each other on the backs and engaging in self-congratulation.

[ewagner]

31. After reading your post

the first words that came to my mind were

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

Biden "went in the tank" with his time.....

[woodsprite]

42. Maybe Bank of America bought and paid for both him and his son. n/t

[Marie26]

26. Feinstein! Now there'll be good questions. nt

[realFedUp]

32. she asked about a term I'm not familiar with...

[realFedUp]

27. Feinstein's up....

Holds up Washington Post article about Alito

[Surya Gayatri]

28. Diane up!

"I'm going to try once again!" Go Diane!

[hang a left]

30. What was the compliment that Di just gave Alito.

I missed it.

[Marie26]

34. You re-wrote the standard for equinimity. nt

[hang a left]

40. What does that mean???

Don't have Webster close by.

[gkhouston]

45. calmness. Could be a backhanded way of saying

he's a baldfaced liar but hardly shows it.

[Pacifist Patriot]

58. LOL! I like that interpretation. Fits the facts whether she means it

that way or not.

[Marie26]

46. I think she's trying to compliment him

on how calm & composed he's been while answering her tough questions. She's just being nice - before launching into more tough questions.

[toymachines]

33. "I always believe everything I read in the WaPo"

Come on Alito, show us that open mind. :eyes:

[Nutmegger]

35. Yeah, what a joke. n-t

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[CottonBear]

36. DiFI is up: "I'm going to try one more time."

Quoting and showing today's Wash. Post "Alito says 'I'll keep an open mind.'"

Ouch. DiFi says Rhenquist said 'precendent is not an inexorable command and so he would/could overturn Roe.'

Alito: ...stare decisis...we could be stuck with bad rulings if we can't override precedent...WEASEL WEASEL

DiFI: Let me try this...reading Robert's testimony...

Robert's said "you begin with Casey and then reaffirm Roe...Spector said: it's settled law...Roberts: there is nothing that would keep me from applying precedent as well as in Casey....

DiFi asks how do you view precedent?

Alito: WEASEL..DiFi sends a document to him....

[realFedUp]

39. Do we have to "settle" for this guy?

In this large and well-educated country, this
is the "best" this court can do?

[gkhouston]

47. not only is he far right, he's not a Big Picture thinker.

This was really the best they could do?

[realFedUp]

50. I guess in the minds of those who chose Harriet Myers before him

[dogday]

41. Diane is pushing Alito into a corner

and forcing him to at least agree or disagree with Roberts. Smart Girl...

[CottonBear]

44. Sending a copy of Robert's testimony to him...

Alito is a major league WEASEL...stare decisis...blah, blah, blah....

[Surya Gayatri]

49. OMG!

"I think that depends on what we mean by 'settled'" Legalistic BS.

[CottonBear]

63. He must coat himself in Crisco prior to the hearing. He's slippery. n/t

[kerry-is-my-prez]

48. Oooh - he's squirming and turning red - go Diane!

n/t

[Marie26]

51. Stammering too! nt

[underpants]

55. "There are currently FOUR cases of one man one vote in front of the court"

ALito himmms and hawwws and says nothing

[CottonBear]

52. You were willing to give opinion on 1 man, 1 vote & 4 cases in court now

YET you will not give opinion on Roe.

DiFi: THE PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO KNOW (your opinion.)

Alito: Weasel, weasel, weasel...

[CottonBear]

57. He says he won't give opinion on cases in progress yet he did that

re: 1 man, 1 vote.

DAMN YOU DiFI: "I'll let you off the hook on that one."

On to cleanwater act...

[Pacifist Patriot]

60. Unfortunately she had to move on. Point made.

[realFedUp]

53. Concerned about commerce clause...environment

[toymachines]

54. The man is cornered

Di's got him sweating. He had nothing to say. Silence, and then more of the same bullshit.

[CottonBear]

61. Stare decisis, Stare decisis, Stare decisis, I can't comment...n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

56. "I'll let you off the hook on that one." Bwaa!

[Marie26]

59. He would've "gutted citizen enforcement" of environmental law

That position would've. And now he's still trying to argue that environmental groups can't challenge violations - even though the Supreme Court overruled him.

[lavenderdiva]

62. okay here's the text of the NYT article that is the basis

for the Kennedy vs. Specter knock-down-drag-out:

from alito's past, a window on conservatives at princeton

ny times

by david d. kirkpatrick

washington, nov. 26 - in the fall of 1985, concerned alumni of princeton was entering a crisis.

the group's members at the time included samuel a. alito jr., now president bush's nominee to the supreme court, although there is no evidence that he played an active or prominent role.

the group had been founded in 1972, the year that judge alito graduated, by alumni upset that princeton had recently begun admitting women. it published a magazine, prospect, which persistently accused the administration of taking a permissive approach to student life, of promoting birth control and paying for abortions, and of diluting the explicitly christian character of the school.

as princeton admitted a growing number of minority students, concerned alumni charged repeatedly that the administration was lowering admission standards, undermining the university's distinctive traditions and admitting too few children of alumni. "currently alumni children comprise 14 percent of each entering class, compared with an 11 percent quota for blacks and hispanics," the group wrote in a 1985 fund-raising letter sent to all princeton graduates.

by the mid-1980's, however, princeton students and recent alumni were increasingly finding such statements anachronistic or worse.

"is the issue the percentage of alumni children admitted or the percentage of minorities?" jonathan morgan, a conservative undergraduate working with the group, asked its board members that fall in an internal memorandum. "i don't see the relevance in comparing the two, except in a racist context (i.e. why do we let in so many minorities and not alumni children?)," he continued.

by 1987, the group had sputtered out.

mr. morgan's memorandum and other records of concerned alumni are contained at the library of congress in the papers of william a. rusher, a leader of the group and a former publisher of national review.

those records and others at mudd library at princeton give no indication that judge alito, who sits on the united states court of appeals for the third circuit, was among the group's major donors. he was not an active leader of the group, and two of his classmates who were involved and mr. rusher said they did not remember his playing a role.

but in an application for a promotion in the reagan administration in the fall of 1985, judge alito was asked to provide information about his "philosophical commitment" to administration policies and listed his membership in concerned alumni.

when the white house disclosed the application this month, liberal groups opposed to his nomination pounced on the connection. "the question for senators to consider and to ask is why samuel alito would brag about his membership in an organization known for its fervent hostility to the inclusion of women and minorities at princeton," said ralph g. neas, president of people for the american way.

steve schmidt, a white house spokesman, declined to comment. but former leaders of concerned alumni say they do not remember the group objecting to the inclusion of minorities, only to the university's affirmative action policies.

andrew p. napolitano, a friend and princeton classmate of judge alito, questioned the relevance of judge alito's association with the group. "his membership probably tells you that his social inclinations are conservative," said mr. napolitano, who became a leader of the group, "but he is so intellectually honest that he labored mightily to keep those inclinations from influencing his decisions on the bench."

as for how judge alito might rule as a supreme court justice, mr. napolitano, a former superior court judge in new jersey, said, "who knows what will happen?"

by 1985 concerned alumni had become well known in conservative circles. financed in part by shelby cullom davis, a member of the 1930 class and the ambassador to switzerland in the nixon administration, the group announced in an early fund-raising pamphlet that its goals included a less-liberal faculty and "a more traditional undergraduate population."

a pamphlet for parents suggested that "racial tensions" and loose oversight of campus social life were contributing to a spike in campus crime. a brochure for princeton alumni warned, "the unannounced goal of the administration, now achieved, of a student population of approximately 40 percent women and minorities will largely vitiate the alumni body of the future."

in 1975, an alumni panel that included senator bill frist of tennessee, the current republican leader and a 1974 princeton graduate, concluded that concerned alumni had "presented a distorted, narrow and hostile view of the university that cannot help but have misinformed and even alarmed many alumni" and "undoubtedly generated adverse national publicity." (mr. frist could not be reached for comment.) in 1977, the new yorker devoted 20 pages to a gently derisive history of the group's squabbles with the university.

by the 1980's, however, concerned alumni had added a new cause: the defense of the exclusive "eating clubs," where many upper class princeton students took their meals, and especially the three all-male clubs. all now admit women.

as a student, judge alito had not joined any of the clubs, taking his meals at a dining hall. but the leaders of concerned alumni and the editors of prospect regarded the clubs as pillars of the university's distinctive social life that were under attack by the princeton administration.

when the administration proposed a new system of residential colleges with their own dining halls, prospect denounced the idea as a potential threat to the system of eating clubs. the magazine charged that, like affirmative action, the plan was "intended to create racial harmony."

prospect portrayed the proposal as an effort to end the de facto segregation of the campus in which black students were concentrated in one dormitory and mostly did not belong to the clubs. "doubtless, there will be many who regard this as mere stalling, and prejudice by another name," an unsigned 1982 editorial argued in defense of the magazine's position. "if realistic approaches to problems must be called dirty names because we do not like them, well, there is no remedy for it."

the magazine's content also grew increasingly provocative under the editorship of conservative rising stars, including dinesh d'souza and later laura ingraham.

a march 1984 article by mr. d'souza told the story of a puerto rican first-year student whose mother sought to remove her from the school after learning that she was having sex with a male student and was receiving sex-education from the school. the magazine said the administration had increased the female student's financial aide to enable her to stay, and it accused princeton of giving new meaning to the phrase "in loco parentis."

hundreds of students signed a petition protesting the article as an invasion of privacy, and the campus debate received national attention.

later that year, concerned alumni fund-raising letters to princeton graduates charged that the director of the university's health clinic had "celebrated the fact that 31 out of 33 pregnant students had abortions after receiving counseling from princeton's sex clinic."

in january 1985 - a few months before judge alito filled out his reagan administration application - william g. bowen, princeton's president, issued a statement calling the letter "callous" and "outrageous."

in an interview, ms. ingraham said liberal groups were making too much of judge alito's membership. "stop the presses!" she said. "sam alito, a conservative, was once a member of a conservative princeton alumni group."

mr. d'souza said supporters of concerned alumni were motivated by a fear that "traditional values" at princeton had come under attack, but their specific concerns varied from academic standards to the athletic program. judge alito's support for the group "might tell you something," he said, "but it is hard to know what."

[CottonBear]

64. Thanks. I'm gonna save that! DiFI hammering him on 90%of wetlands gone

and that it is a catastrophic situation.

[LSK]

69. maybe you should make this a seperate thread

Link us too if you can.

[lavenderdiva]

106. Thanks!

here are the links: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2362632

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x110465

thought I should post in both GD, and GDP..

[CottonBear]

65. Terry Schiavo, end of life Q. from DiFi, Alito weaseling agian. n/t

[Marie26]

66. I can't find an actual answer in his rambling.

Anyone else?

[CottonBear]

67. He only gives yes or no answers to his Republican masters.

He just weasels in response to all other questions. What a bullshitter. He's not even very smart.

[Marie26]

68. He really isn't

Roberts could weasel w/o anyone noticing. Alito is just obvious.

[Surya Gayatri]

80. Yeah, but only

because they set up softball, closed questions that he can answer by Y/N.

[CottonBear]

70. DiFi asking Spector for another round of questions...

Spector says he'll consider it.. let's finish today...

[LSK]

71. Sessions up - time for a bathroom break

:P

[CottonBear]

72. LOL! My very thought and off I go... n/t

[yourout]

74. enough pandering......ask some damn questions.

Sessions is a hack.

[Marie26]

76. Oh my god

The founder & President of the Alito Fan Club.

[Marie26]

73. Does anyone know when/if Feingold is up? nt

[LSK]

75. after Sessions if they use the same order as yesterday

[Marie26]

78. Cool! Thanks.

No break for me, then.

[hang a left]

82. yep...

there goes MY nap.

[underpants]

77. Senator Laurel says he cleared the FBI background search

[Skidmore]

79. Aw, come on, Jeffie, let us scrutinize your record. You worthless

dumb cluck. You bet we'd find skeletons in your closet, and bats in your belfry.

[Marie26]

81. *snore* Questions please. nt

[LSK]

83. not to mention white hoods

[Surya Gayatri]

He's enough to destroy

the credibility of the whole institution of gov'mint. God, how I hate his whiny tones.

[yourout]

84. Not pro business..........?

Now that is a whopper.

[Marie26]

85. Are they allowed to go this long making speeches? nt

[CottonBear]

87. Sure. They don't have to ask but one question. n/t

[CottonBear]

86. Sessions says: "liberals (but not lib. idealogues) regard (Alito) highly

:puke: What utter bullshit. Lies.

[radio4progressives]

88. It does seem to me that Liberal Democrats on the Committee

Should either pipe up and protest - or do quid pro quo and let the reich wing stat have it in their faces right now ...

especially if this is the very last round there really is no other time, than now.

[radio4progressives]

92. ok so there's a 15 minute recess..

what in the hell did i miss when kennedy and specter got back from lunch?

i caught the brouhaha before lunch - regarding the request for documents and Specter got caught in something of a dodge or lie, but i missed any further reference to these papers since then.

[radio4progressives]

99. Ok all the pundits say there will be no filibuster...

so... why the fuck do we even bother monitoring this rubber stamp process??

some one tell me why i have wasted my life in this shite!!!

[LSK]

101. you mean the pundits who said Saddam was a threat???

FUCK THE PUNDITS

[underpants]

90. Sen.Laurel went off there on the Pledge and "under God" huh?

HE talked and talked about it and then got himself turned around back to the Constitution and said something like "I don't think it says that in the Constitution.." realized that the Pledge is a creation of the 20th Century and then...quietly...all by himself....dropped it.

This guy is hilarious.

He just talked for several minutes...paused...and then said "You want to comment on that" ALito had no idea where to go with Sen.Session's nonsense.

TOO DAMNED FUNNY

[LSK]

89. finally the IDIOT shuts up!!! - taking a break now till 4:20 est

:bounce:

[yourout]

91. Was there a question anywere in Sessions BS?

20 minutes of hot air.

[helderheid]

93. taking calls now and Feingold up after the break!

[hang a left]

94. Feingold next...

Would it be a good idea if a new thread was started before he starts????

[hang a left]

96. Reformed democrat on the independent line CSPAN

[Surya Gayatri]

100. Republican unhappy

with Repukes softball questions--not finding out his underlying beliefs.

[sasha031]

95. Feingold finally

:loveya:

[hang a left]

97. new thread maybe????

[sasha031]

98. how can these callers continue to make excuses for this guy

[LSK]

102. new thread?

[hang a left]

103. I think so.

[helderheid]

104. done

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x110437

[LSK]

105. new thread, continues ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=110437&mesg_id=110437

[LeftCoast]

108. Locking

Please continue discussion on current thread