The Crying Game.

In and out of the car, in and out of my "office," I got to hear a bit of the Alito hearings yesterday and when I got home last night, caught some of the histrionics. The Great Middle Tag Team, Gandelman and Schuler (which I think is actually a group of podiatrists in Topeka) offer what to me are likely the general reaction of Americans who are neither absolutely certain that Alito is poised to gut the last thirty years of jurisprudence, or is the latest incarnation of Samson.

While the central scene this morning so far has been of Mrs. Alito quietly weeping at the behest of Lindsey Graham, himself choking back a sob, Joe Biden smiles through his teeth that the Democrats have every right to use a forgone conclusion to whip up their base. Partisans of each persuasion are convinced that the subject is exactly what they want him to be, so what's the point?

I can tell you why Mrs. Alito teared up. It wasn't because the big bad Democrats conducted a modern-day Auto de Fe with her husband as the main course, but because the respite that Senator Graham afforded her husband was welcome and the let down opened up a bit of vulnerability. The Atrios-Kos crowd is convinced that the on-air crying was merely Tears of a Clone, but the truth is that it was a real moment in the midst of days of tedium, rancor and political connivance.

Why is it that it has become, as Newt Gingrich asked last night, so painful to be appointed by the president to a high post? The answer looks simple, if you know where to look. The Supreme Court has become the ideological battleground in America today, the sole arbiter of American society. Or at least we are to believe it is so. But this is the fault of both sides of the abortion debate, or so we are told.

Actually, it is unclear whether each side, and by this I mean not your "average" American or even the partisan rank-and-file who follow and blog about this every bleeding day but the party leadership so forlornly on display these last few days, care about the "abortion debate" above position.

In my more cynical moments I see that the abortion table is turned. Republicans don't really want Roe reversed. What will they use then to raise funds? Likewise, the Democrats would gain huge benefits if Roe was actually gone.

But abortion only takes us so far, so Judge Alito must be cast as a bigoted misogynist homophobe. On a liberal blog this morning I read that it is certain that Alito will overturn Roe. Is that so? All by himself? This is a fiction, and goes hand-in-glove with the myth of the O'Connor swing vote.

The day Roe is overturned, if ever, states across the nation will be enacting pro-choice statutes, much like the Kelo decision activated lethargic state assemblies. I'm still voting for the status quo. Each party has too much riding on keeping it.

So what we have is just as Joe and Dave describe, and which I have been too long-pixeled in commenting. It is posturing and politics and PR. Mrs. Alito just happened to get in the way.

Comments

[Lars1234]

Oh course Alito is not a closeted bigot. He, and rest of CAP, just do not want niggers and bitches attending Princeton. That's just an opinion. Isn't everyone entitled to their opinion? What's wrong with that?

What gives the right to niggers, spics, bitches and other priviledged 'civil rights' groups the right to go to a school that has always been traditionally white and male? Traditions exist for a reason. It is these traditional values that need a person like Alito to defend. Once he is confirmed, we'll have lots of traditional values protected.

Bottom line is that Alito will stabilize our society to where it once was and everyone will know exactly where their proper place is.

[Daniel]

So says an anonymous commenter. If you think that this can somehow demonstrate your panache with sarcasm, well okay. But whatever you point is, somehow you have just made my point for me.

[madmatt]

Unlike the repugs maybe the Dems want to DO THEIR JOB of questioning the scumbag. You know advice and consent...maybe they don't consent to a proponent of big govt racism to hold a high position in this country. Not all of us as are as enlightened as your other reader who wants to take us back to the 1800's...just a racist scumbag who can't deal with what a failure at life he is and needs to blame somebody.

[Lindata]

If Republican's would lose and Democrates would gain from Roe's reversal, then the Democrates are not being partisan in their opposition to Alito. Maybe their opposition is based on protecting a woman's right to choose free from government oversight. Think of that.

By the way, I think discussions of spousal notification would benefit from a discussion of the sanctions to be imposed. Does the woman pay a fine? Does she go to jail? Frankly, if a man is having sexual relations with a woman whose character is such that she would not be open with him about her reproductive status, he deserves what he gets. Do we really want the government involved?

[Bigduke]

Why is this clown allowed to bring his wife to a job interview? This whole damn thing is a farce. Like it or not he's got the votes, put him in and let the chips fall where they may.

[The Raven]

Sorry, Bloggled, but you don't get it.

O'Connor was the swing vote. She was manifestly undecided on a lot of issues, but generally tipped the cards in the direction of American freedom. Thanks to her, countless women have been spared a session with the bloody-smocked duded and the rusty coathanger. But it's been bad enough, what with the Right-to-Life loonies swarming around clinics and harrassing the poor women who try to maintain some control over their reproductive choices.

Scalito won't have the ability to overturn Roe on his first day on the job, but what he will do is ensure that every disgusting, fundamentalist-inspired piece of bullshit anti-abortion legislation that makes its way to the SCOTUS will be rubberstamped in accordance with the wishes of James Dobson and Pat Robertson and any cheapjack yahoo who can play up to the far-right religious wackjobs.

So it means that next time a case is brought to the SCOTUS that, say, asks whether a husband must be informed, whether a minor's parents must be informed, whether a women must be subjected to a video (or counseling session, or sonogram, etc.) prior to obtaining an abortion, the court will come down on the more restrictive option.

As Scalito himself has said publically, his method will be to whittle away at Roe, bit by bit, until it is dead. It means that the morning after pill will be removed as an option, it means that contraception itself might be made illegal - because given the chance, Scalito will always rule against the rights of the citizen in favor of severe government restriction. He always favors the strong against the weak, the powerful against the unfortunate.

By installing this Class-A dickwad on the court, Bush ensures that any rulings in regard to his now almost unlimited power will fall the right way. Environmental legislation? Let's just say this: Gonna be a really bad decade or two for people who like green things.

[real scientist]

Two or three years from now Alito will be in the majority of justices (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy and Alito) that vote to hear and then uphold a law currently winding its way through the Indiana State House. That law prohibits abortion- all abortion, no exception for rape or incest or the mother's health. And the right will get what it wants- the end of Roe v. Wade. And Alito will be the man that sealed the deal.

It is time for America to wake up, and stop expecting one federal judge to save them from themselves. When a politician runs on a platform of overturning Roe v. Wade and Americans then vote to give them control of both houses of congress, the White House, and eventually control of the judiciary, America will get the overturn of Roe v. Wade. It is that simple.