Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Trivial Oceans
From the "What the hell has this guy been smoking" department, Ohio Senator Mike DeWine on Samuel Alito: he "would appear to be someone who is in the mainstream of conservative judges." Yeah, if the mainstream favors strip searches of 10-year-olds.
Before it's over, this is going to be the ugliest political spectacle we've ever witnessed. (But no uglier than the guy's record.) The ugliest fact of all is that there's not much the Democrats can do to stop him unless they're willing to filibuster. However, Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter has already said he doesn't see the kind of circumstances that would merit a filibuster, so if the Dems do it, it's nuclear option time. Nevertheless, a filibuster might be easier than getting some Repugs to cross over and vote against Alito, given that many of the Repugs involved in the nuclear-option compromise last summer are saying they think Alito will be confirmed.
So far, however, the major controversy over the Alito nomination has had little to do with where he stands, and everything to do with a phony kerfuffle over ethnicity, and the "racism" of referring to Alito as "Scalito," which was a term even his friends and colleagues applied to him. Hunter at Daily Kos, who is Italian himself, is particularly appalled at the suggestion that Democrats who oppose Alito are biased against Italian-Americans:
Another Note to Patrons: If you have been accessing this blog from the link at jabartlett.com, be advised that the domain will no longer exist after tomorrow. You'll need to come here directly: jabartlett.blogspot.com.
From the "What the hell has this guy been smoking" department, Ohio Senator Mike DeWine on Samuel Alito: he "would appear to be someone who is in the mainstream of conservative judges." Yeah, if the mainstream favors strip searches of 10-year-olds.
Before it's over, this is going to be the ugliest political spectacle we've ever witnessed. (But no uglier than the guy's record.) The ugliest fact of all is that there's not much the Democrats can do to stop him unless they're willing to filibuster. However, Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter has already said he doesn't see the kind of circumstances that would merit a filibuster, so if the Dems do it, it's nuclear option time. Nevertheless, a filibuster might be easier than getting some Repugs to cross over and vote against Alito, given that many of the Repugs involved in the nuclear-option compromise last summer are saying they think Alito will be confirmed.
So far, however, the major controversy over the Alito nomination has had little to do with where he stands, and everything to do with a phony kerfuffle over ethnicity, and the "racism" of referring to Alito as "Scalito," which was a term even his friends and colleagues applied to him. Hunter at Daily Kos, who is Italian himself, is particularly appalled at the suggestion that Democrats who oppose Alito are biased against Italian-Americans:
I despise Alito because he's a Scalia-Thomas-Dobson reactionary blowhard so far out of the mainstream that in his mental counties they haven't even invented the damn telegraph yet, and our shared ethnicity has exactly Zero The Fuck To Do With It. And you goddamn race-baiters know it.I'm a little worried about that vein sticking out of Hunter's forehead, but I admire his spirit, and share his exasperation at the stupidity of the race-baiting tactic. It's the kind of thing the Repugs are good at: drowining the meaningful in oceans of the trivial.
Goddamn it, if you want to see one particular stereotype come to full fruition, you got it. Yeah, I'm an Italian American, with the funny sounding name and the brownish-blackish hair and the big, black eyebrows above two eyes that look like the apocalypse may burst right the hell out of them at any particular moment of the day. I'm part Sicilian, and I'm another big part Scottish, which means between the two of them that my natural demeanor in this fight is to rip off your arms, beat you to death with them, and serve the remains stuffed in dissected sheep parts and delivered to your parents' doorstep.
Another Note to Patrons: If you have been accessing this blog from the link at jabartlett.com, be advised that the domain will no longer exist after tomorrow. You'll need to come here directly: jabartlett.blogspot.com.
