John Cole on the crying Mrs. Alito:
Did the Democrats say some stupid and offensive things yesterday? Sure they did. I don't remember Sen. Kennedy claiming Alito had a black baby, and I don't remember Sen. Schumer testifying that Alito snapped under pressure in a Vietnamese POW camp and sold out America, and I don't remember Sen. Feinstein stating that Alito shot himself to get out of the VietNam war, but did they say some nasty things? Sure. And I said so.
But the way Drudge portrayed events was patently dishonest, and I stick to that.
There's also the larger point of personality politics here. Which got more media attention: Alito's opinions on executive power or his wife's case of the vapors? Or, on the other side, which got more press: Alito's assertion that one man (or woman) genuinely does deserve one vote, or his wife's sudden need for smelling salts?
What we're supposed to be having is a conversation about judicial philosophy and constitutional law. What the media is covering, or trying to cover, is a soap opera. But with the outcome preordained, there's no public service in keeping score, the only possible utility for televised analysis of the hearings is to better educate Americans on what their future Supreme Court justice believes. Weepy wives should have no part in it. Particularly considering, as others have pointed out, that Judge Alito's many decisions against women, minorities, and individual plaintiffs have certainly caused more tears and pain than any partially comprehensible question by Ted Kennedy ever could.
