They could have just asked him

Yesterday on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart's guest was a man who's written a book on The Supreme Court and thought, as most people seem to do, that Alito was going to be confirmed. That the Democrats had been hoping to "trick" him into making some gaffe in his testimony.

A gaffe that would have revealed his Bush-worshipping, anti-women's rights, anti-civil rights, way-the-fuck-out-of-the-mainstream, homophobic, Reagan-loving ass for what it is. But, said Jon's guest (whose name I don't remember) that was never going to happen; Alito had been too well prepared to be tricked into showing those cards.

But here's the thing. Put aside everything we've learned about his record in the past few months. Everything that, if this was a country with any sense of reality, would have resulted in his being laughed out of the senate. But put that aside.

The democrats didn't have to finesse and finagle and try to artfully steer him into giving himself away. They could have just asked him.

On Anderson's Cooper's show (via Pandagon), Alan Dershowitz said this:

...if I were a senator, I’d ask [Supreme Court nominees] the following question. I would say, “You have said that your personal views are utterly irrelevant to how you will decide cases. We don’t agree with you on that. But since you’ve said that, let’s ask you some really hard questions about your personal views.”

“Is your mother right when she says that you personally strongly oppose a woman’s right to choose abortion? What do you personally think of gay rights? What do you personally think of affirmative action?”

He couldn’t say, “Well, I can’t give you those answers because it will come before me.” No, no, no, no. You’ve told us that your personal views are irrelevant. We think they’re relevant, so give us the answers. I think it’s a very, very hard question for him to duck.

[Or ask him] Bush vs. Gore. Where were you on the night that Bush vs. Gore was announced? What did you say to your friends when the decision came down? What did you actually say? Did you write e-mails to anybody? Did you agree with the decision, not what would you do in the future?

They could have just asked him.

Sometimes I think democrats and republicans aren't donkeys and elephants anymore. They're frogs and scorpions. Yeah, the scorpion will sting you. It's in their nature; you don't expect anything more from them. But the frog was stupid enough to give the scorpion a ride across the water on their back.

The problem with this anaology is that, in the tale, at least the frog and the scorpion both die. And in this version, the frog may drown, but the scorpion is going to be appointed to one of the most powerful benches in the land.

And he can't be removed except by retirement or death.

They could have just asked him.

Days like this I wish I drank more.