The Crying Game (by James Wolcott)

[kpete]

The Crying Game
Posted by James Wolcott

It seems as if it was only this afternoon--because it was only this afternoon--that conservative bloggers were flopping all over each other to express their boredom with the windbag monotony of the Alito hearings, trying to outdo each other with yawns, snores, and zzzzzzzzzz's.

Then Mrs. Alito suffered a case of the weepies that was so dramatically well-timed and patently maudlin that I was reminded of the classic stage direction in Private Eye (takes out onion, wipes away tear), and suddenly the proceedings turned into a soap opera with Fox News commentators arriving on cue to deplore the toll taken on innocent bystanders in these brutal proceedings. From their sympathetic clucks and disapproving tones you would have thought Alito had been subjected to a Stalinist show trial presided over by Randi Rhodes in a bad mood rather than honey-tongued Lindsey Graham asking Alito with tender solicitude, "Are you a bigot?" The hypocritical highpoint came when Newt Gingrich, who during his reign as Speaker of the House did more than any political leader in recent memory to dump raw sewage into the political discourse, had the gall to invoke Joseph Welch's famous rhetorical throwdown of moral umbrage during the McCarthy hearings--"At long last, sir, have you no decency?"--to showboat his phony disgust over this trivial episode of upset feelings.

Yes, so heartsick were conservatives over this lady in distress that they immediately hurrahed Mrs. Alito's walkout as the humanizing moment that would win the public's sympathy vote and put Judge Alito's candidacy over the top and assure him a seat on the Court. If Alito is confirmed, Mrs. Alito and Judge Clarence Thomas's wife can commisserate by exchanging monogrammed crying towels as their men folk roll back women's rights and civil liberties and go duck hunting weekends with Scalia.

http://www.jameswolcott.com/

[AX10]

1. Recomended!

.

[Dudley_DUright]

2. Beat me by two minutes

I also just posted this over in editorials.

[Steve A Play]

3. Kicked and recommended!

:kick: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Steven P.

[Neecy]

4. I love his blog...

He skewers rightwing hypocrites better than anyone.

[wicket]

27. Amen to that!

:thumbsup:

[upi402]

5. sniff...sniff...

"If Alito is confirmed, Mrs. Alito and Judge Clarence Thomas's wife can commisserate by exchanging monogrammed crying towels as their men folk roll back women's rights and civil liberties and go duck hunting weekends with Scalia."
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Kikosexy2]

55. Where...

was Tammy Faye when needed? Come on Mrs. ScAlito next time use non-waterproof mascara please! So much more effective--ask Tammy.

[TaleWgnDg]

69. Ahhhhhhh, the very same quote grabbed me, too!

Ahhhhhhh, the very same quote grabbed me, too!

Indeed.

However, it isn't funny. No way! Sad, it is. Very sad. It was so damn sadly theatrical that we *saw* this



several times during Q&As, as to participants as well as that from the audience! What else is (not) new in politics?

BTW, what's this about Lindsey Graham having had a "practice session" with Judge Alito prior to the Senate Judiciary Cmte hearing on Alito's nomination? So much for theatrics mixed w/ politics.

[txindy]

6. Five votes

Off to the Greatest Page you go. :hi:

[bleever]

8. "How DARE you, sir, hold this noble and decent man, to the publications

of an organization he cited on his resume!"

"The inferences to be drawn from this revolting text are beneath contempt! How dare you bring them up while his family is here!"

"Only the basest coward without the slightest shred of decency would confront this man with the words of his avowed associates! For shame, Senator: for shame."



:rofl:

[txindy]

9. Ah, yes. Don't confuse them with facts.

Written, undisputed facts. Those pesky little things that they don't let come between them and an opinion. We wouldn't want to point out the bigot in the hotseat, now would we? That would bring attention to him. He might be offended.

Say wha...? :freak:

Besides, if they acknowledged the elephant in the room, they wouldn't be able to stack the SC in preparation for the inevitable appeals by Abramoff and his slimy congress critters. Some of the same critters on the committee, perhaps. At least, that's what Graham seemed to be babbling about.

Sheesh.

My :rofl: is a little weak tonight. I'm so completely disgusted with the whole thing. I can't wait for the results of Kennedy's research on the CAP group, though.

[FreedomAngel82]

21. After Kennedy is done with that

than they'll be really crying.

[malaise]

35. How can it be guilt by association

if he carefully selects CAP as one of his associations when he was looking for a right wing job. This is so much bullshit.

[TahitiNut]

7. Yet these are the people who don't think it's 'torture' unless permanent

... organ damage results - or death. Kabuki. Staged. Rehearsed. Deliberate. Bullshit melodrama.

[nicknameless]

13. Thank you! n/t

[RazzleDazzle]

10. please post the permalink

dammit

[nicknameless]

14. Here:

http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2006/01/the_crying_game.php

[Jade Fox]

11. God, I love Wolcott....

He can always be turned to for some take-no-prisoners sanity.

[Straight Shooter]

12. What do you do when you cry? Do you hang your head, cover your eyes?

Or do you sit and stare at a camera so the whole g'damned nation can see your crocodile tears spilling over onto your haughty cheeks?

[incapsulated]

16. I throw my head back and sob...

and actually need to leave the room. Especially when I'm on live tv.

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Very good question

I know when I cry I don't want to be seen by anybody. Not out of embarrassment but because when I'm depressed I want to be alone. But maybe that's me. :shrug:

[Surya Gayatri]

29. You know, that was

my first reaction too. I thought, but whenever I've been teary in public, I've instinctually put my head down or covered my eyes--a gesture of self- protection, away from prying eyes. It's a privacy thing.:eyes: SG

[mark11727]

52. Sob, scream, and wail to Gawd in His Heaven.....

...WHY? WHY? WHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?

Quiet dignity and grace...

[Corgigal]

15. I personally loved

how Lindsey "moot court" Graham played good cop. I wonder if Mrs. Alito was with her hubby at the moot court practices.

[0007]

33. Just for dress rehearsals

[incapsulated]

17. BAM!

He nailed it! :)

[Miss Marmelstein]

18. Here's to you, Mrs. A....

[SammyWinstonJack]

44. .

:evilgrin:

[Neil Lisst]

19. Who coached Alito? Graham. Who staged this? Graham.

This has scripted written all over it.

The truth hurts, doesn't it, Mrs. Scalito?

[MADem]

23. Gillespie, too, came into the room right before the performance

He probably was there to tell them to "execute the play" as it were.

[Neil Lisst]

56. I think they knew she would bubble up.

I am not sure she's that good at crying on cue.

But they knew she'd cry.

It's the typical rightwing ploy.

CONFIRM SAM OR YOU'LL MAKE MRS. ALITO CRY, you bastards!!

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Very good article

It was timed and anyone who doesn't see that isn't paying attention. Poor baby. Maybe she should talk to Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Edwards.

[B Calm]

24. The DYSFUNCTIONAL WIFE of Alito was traumatized, oh please

I'm so sick of the right wing freaks. GOD I HATE THESE PEOPLE!

[info being]

46. Miserable fucks, they are indeed.

[leftchick]

25. Did anyone else see Lindsey's tears?

I swear I saw him tear up as he asked that question right before the Niagra Falls moment from Martha-Ann. Did anyone else catch that?

[Surya Gayatri]

26. Oh, for sure, he definitely

managed, with great thespian talent, to inject a teary tremble into his voice--just to make sure we caught the sound of that lump in his lying throat. :puke: SG

[0007]

34. I missed it! Sure would like to see it through.

:hi:

[derby378]

28. YES!!

Hu-fucking-zzah!! Well done!!

[librechik]

30. "a Stalinist show trial presided over by Randi Rhodes in a bad mood "

I'd pay big money to see that

Wolcott is the best, bar none

[RumpusCat]

40. that line made me choke on my coffee

Randi interrogating right-wingers? Ye gods, how can we make this dream happen? :D

[PegDAC]

49. Stephanie Miller got off a good one, too!

She proposed that Martha-Ann was crying becase when she heard about Sammy's membership in the racist, sexist CAP, she realized what a scumbag her husband is!
}( :applause:

[lonestarnot]

31. The bawl bag is a snivelling excuse for a human, just the type for a

closet afternoon group therapy at a prescription drug rehab. Patriarchy in that relationship is digusting.

[0007]

32. This sums it up fairly accurately.

Lindsey Graham is a vicious bum to say the least. This little son-of-a-bitch should be exposed for what he represents. Remember the Clinton hearings?

[foreverdem]

36. Maybe she was crying

...because she got a good look at that get up she was wearing in a full length mirror. That was enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes.

What a phony snake she is. Just like her husband.

[Patiod]

37. "I've seen better acting from Tough-Actin Tenactin"

A quote from my S.O., the actor.

He went on to elaborate that his kids at day camp could out-act her.

[robbedvoter]

39. But his kids lack the on cue fan club standing by the phones!

This was finely time - not unlike the Wellstone funeral or Cheney's daughter's "outrage"...
With the media in their hands they are playing us like a fiddle....They create the drama, then cover it and emote...beautiful!

[robbedvoter]

38. James Wolcott writes like a God!

"If Alito is confirmed, Mrs. Alito and Judge Clarence Thomas's wife can commisserate by exchanging monogrammed crying towels as their men folk roll back women's rights and civil liberties and go duck hunting weekends with Scalia."

[Senator]

41. (imo) -- Mrs. Alito's Crying Was NO Game

When I saw her breakdown I was reminded of Paula Jones's similar behavior at her announcement that she had (once again) been coerced into perpetrating her slander of Bill Clinton, this time in a Federal Appeals Court.

I think her conscience was momentarily getting the better of her. It's one thing to spend one's life rationalizing your husband's "little flaws" (like private bigotry), but it's quite another to be sitting in the US Senate, knowing that you are a participating prop in a Big Lie that will have real consequences on real people to whom you harbor no ill will.

I saw more evidence of this today in her (medicated?) performance near the end of Sen. Kennedy's long list of known deceptions (appox. 10:05 AM). As Sammy himself was (shockingly) squirming with discomfort, Mrs. Alito, though unable to make eye contact with the Senator, had a look of imperiousness and self-satisfaction reminiscent of Bitchy-Babs BushMom herself.

It was some "picture of a marriage."

Would be a great clip for Crooks and Liars.

--
www.january6th.org

[Beelzebud]

42. Well said!

Don't let this phoney moment fool you. And Fuck the Corporate Controlled Media for turning this into the focus of this man's nomination.

[DirtyDawg]

43. Life is about choices...

...Mr. Alito chose to associate himself with that organization for some reason...and although the dems are coming across as inept fumblers in their questioning of him, they, and we, have a right to understand why the good judge made that choice. Of course, he could always use the 'when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible' excuse.

What really made the day was Sen Graham with his attempt at his own personal 'at long last, have you no shame' moment. He pulled it off pretty well particularly since Msres. Alito supplied the emotional reaction - nice camera work. Repigs are looking far more calm and composed than any of the dems...and when you consider that the group includes Chronyn and the gynecologist from Oklahoma, that's pretty hard to believe.

[wryter2000]

45. Bless you, Wolcott!

I've been wondering how to counteract any winger weepies over her tender sensibilities. This gives me exactly what I need.

[tgnyc]

47. Boo-fuckin'-hoo

[CottonBear]

48. USA Today has Mrs. Alito weeping in full color above the fold

and below the fold blames her breakdown on the "Democrats aggressive questioning.
:grr:

[mark11727]

50. As I posted over at TBogg's under another ID...

Just saw Mrs A's photo over at watertiger's ... she's got one of those "feel sorry for me" faces that fairly screams for a glass of water to be thrown at it.

Snap out of it, woman! Don't you know there's a war on?!

[Ensalada]

51. I guess I choose not to be so cynical

and assume that the tears were real. I don't know anything about the woman. It can't be easy to sit and watch your spouse get grilled, all his ugliness held up to the light.

Here's the thing: so f'ing what?

If it takes one wife crying or a thousand husbands and wives crying to ensure the protection of the freedom of an entire nation of millions, then let them cry cry cry cry cry.

The real scandal is that this is a story at all.

When the US bombed a wedding party a couple of weeks ago in Iraq, I don't remember any front-page stories about the family members crying. Who in the media will compare the weight of tears?

This isn't a country club membership interview. (Or is it???) Make everyone cry. Bring people to their knees. This is about life and death. Decisions on abortion and war. Lives and deaths, millions and millions of people.

So let her cry.

[Laurab]

60. Real or not

you're quite right about the rest. Welcome to DU! :hi: :hi:

[newyawker99]

67. Hi Ensalada!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Marthe48]

53. she could've been drinking champagne out of a shoe --

or cry her eyes out -- Alito will be on the Supreme Court. Her emotional response real or fake, doesn't move me. Their law isn't my law, their interpretation of the Constitution isn't my interpretation of the Constitution and their sense of decency certainly isn't my sense of decency. The unburied dead in New Orleans evoked more pity from me than some overfed elitist judge who couldn't care less about individual rights.

[RevCheesehead]

54. The red dress with the white jacket is easy to spot on TV.

Never mind the fact that her false, plastic smile today is all-too-familiar...

Can you say "Pickles"? Uh-huh. I knew you could.

[connecticut yankee]

57. Lousy hypocrites!

they ridicule Cindy Sheehan for crying real tears!

[azureblue]

58. It was staged

Rachel Brand was on Mrs. Alito's left, Dan Coats on her right.
Both Repug handlers. She miscued.

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.

[MADem]

59. AND THE SWIFT BOAT CREW has a PROMINENT role in this, folks!!

How can you do anything but shriek in outrage at THIS info!!! http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002645.html

Why are Swift Boaters -- the folks who smeared John Kerry's war record in the 2004 election -- now trying to promote Alito's nomination by capitalizing on yesterday's bizarre incident?

We're referring to this release sent out yesterday by Creative Response Concepts, an Alexandria, Va., based PR firm with deep blood lines on the far right:

...(skipping the RW horseshit)...In case that was too much trouble for the journalists, the firm also e-mailed out a statement from the Judicial Confirmation Network calling "for the abuse to stop."

...Who is Creative Response Concepts? Among other things, they were "the brains" advising Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth last summer, when the group made national headlines with its smear campaign against Kerry's Vietnam War record. .....

Read it, and puke!!!

[TheGunslinger]

65. Good thing it wasn't Kerry that "made" her cry...good grief!

;)

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. You'd have thought Alito was one of the Iraqi captives in US

custody in the Abu Graib archipelago in Iraq, innocent but tortured nevertheless. It is after all freely acknowledged by the torturers that some of their captives are bound to be innocent.

Leaving aside Alito's wife's sympathy for her spouse, what a bunch of cry-baby whiners those chicken-hawks are! But then, you'd expect it, wouldn't you?

[Canuckistanian]

62. I always love his stuff

He's jaded, cynical and overly critical at times, but always devastatingly funny and accurate.

[joytomme]

63. Mrs. A

I'm suddenly reminded of an Oscar Wilde comment with regard to Mrs. Alito's tears: "One must have
a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing."

Joy Tomme
http://ratbangdiary.blogspot.com

[Peanutcat]

64. Bah!

It was so staged it was sickening! Good God, don't tell me that's worst thing she's ever heard anyone ask her husband? Does anyone think Hillary could have gotten away with such bullshit when Bill was being asked questions about his character?:banghead:

[emald]

66. james wolcott hits it on the head

as usual. Crying on cue...I remember when I saw a clip of this episode I thought to myself "what is she crying about?" After reading Wolcott it became apparent. Acting. All this from a side that considers torture an acceptable discipline. Phony baloney. Liars.
This repukelickscan regime has become ugly beyond definition. If not stopped in 2006 we will forever by sunk or so my skeptical depressed brain says.

[chat_noir]

68. Kick