At the end of Day 1 of the Senate committee hearing for Judge Samuel Alito, critics said the liberals on the Senate panel hadn’t shown any heart for the battle. They weren’t hurting Alito. When they did ask penetrating, relevant questions on appropriate subjects, they didn’t score.
The crowd of liberals and special-interest groups screamed for blood.
Most of us learned as kids that bullies never fight fair—it’s what makes them cowards. They love the smell of blood unless it’s their own. They rarely learn from reason or the Socratic Method. It usually takes a solid right hook to the nose.
I once slugged a fifth-grade classmate who was punching some kindergarten kids during recess. There weren’t any teachers around and nobody else did anything to stop it. At an eighth-grade picnic, the same bully poured Pepsi on girls seated on the ground. He approached me, apparently suffering a memory lapse, so I tried reason and refreshed his recollection. He raised the bottle, so I busted his nose. He brought me a giant-sized Hershey bar every day through graduation and wanted me to date him in high school, his nose scar notwithstanding.
I hate violence—real or fake. But I confess there were times during the hearing when I wanted to bust some noses, starting with Ted KennedyŻminority bully and coward from Massachusetts.
On Day 2, Kennedy and his “respected” gladiators went after Alito, knowing he would lose unless he took whatever they gave without responding in kind.
What followed was stomach-churning blood sport. By comparison, Roman gladiators seemed civilized. They were equally armed and fought valiantly or were put to death.
This was about nothing more than political survival.
Under the banner of a blood-soaked abortion lobby, Kennedy and company stripped the soft-spoken, intellectual gladiator of sword and shield, chained him to a post, and flailed away in the name of human rights.
Alito dare not get his back up. He had to maintain that temperate judicial manner while snarling, condescending bullies sliced away.
The self-styled savior of women, who deserted a woman when she needed him most, led the attack. Don’t call it a cheap-shot about ancient history, not after he assailed Alito about a 30-year-old insignificant association.
Passing judgment on another’s integrity ought to require at least a negligible amount of it. Many of Kennedy’s under-40 fan club wouldn’t know Chappaquiddick from lip balm.
They went for the jugular of Alito’s character and reputation with “reckless words [that] pierce like a sword.” The browbeaters knew in their puny hearts their words were baseless and ruthless. But they went for the man in front of his wife, daughter, son, sister, friends, colleagues and a global TV audience that included his mother. And they did so while protesting torture and unjust confinement.
The government bullies ravaged Alito for “siding with government against the little guy.” They stripped his armor to fire at the modern-day “Machine-gun Kelly.”
Kennedy, who cavorted among the all-male Hasty Pudding-heads at Harvard, pummeled Alito for association with the allegedly “racist … sexist … and homophobic” Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Even Kennedy’s fan club at The New York Times had cleared Alito several weeks prior.
Kennedy either knew that and ignored it or he’s more reckless about truth than any imagined. A bully with numerous ethical lapses railed against Alito’s unimpeached record.
At the end of Day 2, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) had enough of the charges of bigotry and all the rest. His voice trembled and tears appeared as he began an apology to Judge Alito and his family for what they had endured. Mrs. Alito responded with tears of appreciation and pride for the man at the post.
So did most of us. It made me want even more to bust a nose.
Judge Alito should receive a unanimous thumbs-up. Nobody could survive the post with more class and honor.
Kennedy, on the other hand, should depart an arena he has dishonored beyond recovery. Liberal stomachs must have churned as well.
There aren’t enough Hershey bars in the whole world to cover this one.
