Alito and His Coaches

[hang a left]

Mondo Washington

Alito and His Coaches

For Supreme Court nominee, hearings are an inside game
by James Ridgeway with Michael Roston
January 10th, 2006 9:59 AM



WASHINGTON, D.C.--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.''

The coaching session for Alito has raised a few eyebrows.
snip>

embedded links at

http://villagevoice.com/news/index.php?issue=0602&page=roston&id=71634

[Justice Is Comin]

1. The bomb that should be left smoking

as the last sentences in Feingold's last round should be:

"You were tutored, prepped, coached and rehearsed on the questions that were likely to come before you on this committee. Do you think we should place a judge on the Supreme Court for a lifetime appointment who needs to have coaching sessions before his confirmation hearing? I would like a yes or no."

His face would light up like Rudolphs nose.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Snappy one-liner! However...

...I suspect the GOP comeback would be that every nominee, from whatever party, has been briefed (and, probably, rehearsed) before his or her committee appearance. And all it would take would be evidence that a Democratic nominee had received such treatment for that line to backfire badly.

[hang a left]

3. You are correct...

But it is WHO is rehearsing him here that makes the difference. And this rehearsal was at the WH.

[ShockediSay]

4. Coached to be the Artful Dodger that he's been thus far

Oh, I need specifics <BULLSHIT!

Oh, I'll have an open mind <about overturning Roe v Wade> BULLSHIT!

Oh, I don't know why I beat the drum for CAP <I'm a chameleon> BULLSHIT!

Oh, I don't know why I forgot about recusing myself in the Fund case > BULLSHIT ARTIST!

Oh, I don't know about one man one vote< a cornerstone of democracy> BULLSHIT!

Oh, no President is above the law <and I will tell you what the law really is> BUSSHIT!

Oh, let me just tell you what you want to hear>BULLSHIT! FILIBUSTER!

[rodeodance]

5. I heard on two news talk shows how the Dems have decided NOT to

vote for him before the hearings started. But NOTHing about Grahm comment.

What a crapola!

[izzie]

6. We lose the country when power votes in power for itself.

I think it goes back to Locke and our founders. I guess when the GOP right wing side gets all the power in the three groups it will go back to family rule and money rule. The twins or Jeb are next type stuff. So the country that showed the world a different way to rule its self became like what they were trying to get away from. Boy but I hope we can do better than that. Trouble is so many seem to want that style that they may win. As if they knew that it will put them in the same place as the people who do not want it are. Only the money and power people win. Once they are in with all the power the voters are fast forgotten. They are just not needed any more. Wonder why they do not see how it will be? I can see it and I am sure no brain.

[Skidmore]

7. NO member of the Judiciary Committee should have been

allowed within 100 yards of any nominee before the hearings.

[annabanana]

9. You are, of course, correct... and they would NOT have been

...if the confirmation hearings were what they were designed to be. If the government was functioning as it was written that would certainly be the case.

I sure wish that every test I've had to take in life was preceeded by intensive coaching by the testers...

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. So despite Graham coaching him

He still couldn't answer Graham's questions. Graham was asking him to name some case and Alito had no idea what he was talking about and couldn't come up with the answer. You could hear Graham prodding him and getting frustrated when Alito just sat there like a dumb ass. Finally, a frustrated Graham answered the question himself so that he could continue. Graham ended up sounding like a college professor lecturing a student who hadn't studied enough for an important test. It was pretty funny and now Graham's frustration makes even more sense because he had personally coached Alito and Alito still couldn't figure out the answer.

Alito is starting to make Clarence Thomas look like a genius.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Here's the part of the hearing I was referring to

GRAHAM: Can you show me in a case in American jurisprudence where an enemy prisoner held by our military was allowed to bring a lawsuit against our own military regarding their detention?

ALITO: I am not aware of such a case.

GRAHAM: Is there a constitutional right for a foreign, noncitizen enemy prisoner to have access to our courts to sue regarding their condition of the confinement under our Constitution?

ALITO: Well, I'm not aware of a precedent that addresses the issue.

GRAHAM: Do you know of any case where an enemy prisoner of war brought a habeas petition in World War II objecting to be their confinement to our federal judiciary?

ALITO: There may have been a lower court case. I'm trying to remember the exact status of the individual.

GRAHAM: Let me help you. There were two cases. One of them involved six saboteurs, the in re Quirin case. Would you agree with me that that case stood for the proposition that in a time of war or declared hostilities an illegal combatant, even though they may be an American citizen, the proper forum for them to be tried in is a military tribunal and they're not entitled to a jury trial as an American citizen in a non-wartime environment?

ALITO: Well, those were a number of German saboteurs who landed by submarine in the United States. And they were taken into custody. And they were tried before a military tribunal.

And the case went up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sustained their being tried before a military tribunal. At least one of them claimed to be an American citizen. And most of them, I think all but one or two, actually were executed.

GRAHAM: And our Supreme Court said that is the proper forum during a war-time environment to try people who were engaged in a legal combat activities against our country. Is that correct?

ALITO: They sustained what was done under the circumstances.

GRAHAM: That would be a precedent then, wouldn't it?

ALITO: It is a precedent. Yes.

GRAHAM: OK.

There was a case involving six Germans, soldiers, captured in Japan and transferred to Germany, and they brought a habeas petition to be released in the -- I can't remember the ...

ALITO: Eisentrager.

GRAHAM: You know it. Tell me what the court decided there.

ALITO: They were, as I recall, they were Germans who were found in China...

GRAHAM: China. You're right


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001418.html

[BurtWorm]

14. Graham is an idiot.

Sidney Blumenthal shreds him in The Clinton Wars. It's hard to look at Graham anymore without remembering him flubbing his way through the impeachment.

[hang a left]

11. kick

[realFedUp]

12. kick

Why didn't Feingold mention Graham's name as
one of his coaches.
Seems fairly unethical...oh right, there are
no more ethics.

[mb7588a]

15. i went back and looked at my TiVo recording of that line of questions...

Feingold does look over in Graham's direction, but never mentions him by name. Also impossible to say whether he was looking at Graham or not.

[BurtWorm]

13. kicked and recommended