How did Alito keep from going crazy?

An earlier blog item lampooned Judge Samuel Alito for boring senators into supporting him. But Peggy Noonan was amazed by Alito’s ability to sit and listen to senators bloviate without going crazy.
“How does he do it?” she opined in The Wall Street Journal. “This wonderful look of enforced blandness. It’s a low affect tour de force. And it cannot be easy. When Mr. Biden says things like, ‘Try to follow me, Judge Alito,’ as he goes on one of his long, sterile journeys, I wonder if Judge Alito has to control himself with an act of will. I wonder if he has an inner Regis Philbin, and wants to throw out his arms and say, ‘Follow you? If I follow you, we’ll both wind up lost!’ When Mr. Biden says, ‘Now this is a somewhat subtle point,’ I wonder if Judge Alito wants to say, ‘Joe, if it were a subtle point you wouldn’t be making it!’”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

14 Comments

  1. CF
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 1:52 am | Permalink

    I’ll tell you how Alito didn’t go crazy during the hearings: he didn’t have to listen to Peggy Noonan run her puerile, vapid, obsequious mouth.

  2. J M Walker
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 4:35 am | Permalink

    Good grief, has anyone ever actually listened to Joe Biden speak? Now there’s a convoluted thought process come to life if I ever heard one. Keep from going crazy? It’s a wonder Alito doesnt jump up and beat the stuffing out of Biden for being so stupid.

  3. Rage
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 9:33 am | Permalink

    Alito managed to keep from going crazy because he’s already crazy.

  4. CF
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 9:35 am | Permalink

    J M Walker,

    Agreed. Biden is truly an opportunistic, detestable character.

  5. J M Walker
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 9:39 am | Permalink

    CF, It must be Friday the thirteenth: we actually agree on something:-)

  6. CF
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 10:06 am | Permalink

    J M Walker,

    I’ve found Biden to be contemptable for, oh, a couple of decades now. He’s the consummate Washington insider and enabling child of the credit card industry. Even worse, he runs by making cheap shots against Democrats.

    And then there are the speeches. God, the speeches, and the Sunday morning news show appearances. Biden ranges from goofy to overbearning, loving every clever thing he finds himself saying. Pure agony.

  7. TRACY
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 10:41 am | Permalink

    BLOVIATE?

    WHAT A TERRIFIC WORD!!!!!!!!

    Phillip, you have certainly outdone yourself this time.

  8. Steven E.
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 11:42 am | Permalink

    To quote Terry Neal of the Washington post -”Bloviate, not only do I like that word; I like doing it.”

  9. J M Walker
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 4:31 pm | Permalink

    I bloviated once. It took me two years to get over it.

  10. XXX
    Posted January 13, 2006 at 10:59 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, but your friends never got over it, LOL!

  11. J M Wlaker
    Posted January 14, 2006 at 4:57 am | Permalink

    I know: it’s called jealousy:-)

  12. Heckler
    Posted January 14, 2006 at 9:44 am | Permalink

    For your enjoyment, an entartaining little story over at Slate.com

    http://www.slate.com/id/2134287/

  13. J R
    Posted January 15, 2006 at 11:08 pm | Permalink

    Thank our lucky stars for Senators like Biden and Kennedy. They realize their importance in the process of government. They did their best and I hope they will continue to do their best to prevent a right wing idealogue like Alito from ascending to the Supreme Court. We can only hope they hold out for filibuster of this evil man and at last and finally force the Republicans to use the “nuclear option” and finally expose themselves for the freedom stealing puppets of money and business that they are.

    And If CF and a few other weak kneed, soft spined “democrats” have a problem with this then they, like a large number of Democrats and Americans are more a part of the problem than the solution.

    Never sell out!

  14. CF
    Posted January 16, 2006 at 1:01 am | Permalink

    J R,

    With all due respect, you’re calling ME a weak-kneed, spineless Democrat? I believe that would be a first.

    You seem to have mistaken my contempt for the self-aggrandizing Biden with approval of the would-be fascist Alito. These are two different issues.

    Biden is as big a sellout as the Democratic Party harbors these days. Witness his support of the MBNA ‘bankruptcy’ bill and his attempts to angle for the perceived center of Presidential by backstabbling other Democrats–notably Howard Dean. Finally, I have zero faith–ZERO–that Biden would seriously support a filibuster.

    This view regarding Biden has no bearing on my position regarding Samuel Alito. Alito absolutely must be filibustered. No ifs, ands, or buts. God help us all, left, right, and center, if he is confirmed for the Court!

    On Friday, I called the offices of the Sedgwick County Democrats, the Kansas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Senator Kennedy, Senator Leahey, and Senator Reid to tell them, straight up, to filibuster the Alito nomination. I’ll be calling other Senators on Tuesday, and I implore others to do so as well.

    I listened to most of the hearings. I thought Schumer, Leahey, Feingold, Kennedy, and Feinstein did me proud. I also acknowledge that Biden did pose the question about John Yoo’s claims regarding executive power.

    So, J R, I believe you misinterpreted my comment. As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, Democrats should pull out all the stops and go to the wall to keep this weasel Alito from staining the Supreme Court with his presence, and from wrecking our Constitution in the worst of all possible worst case scenarios. There is no tomorrow.

    If the Democratic Party doesn’t have the stomach to do this, it’s through.