Alito The Bigot

Samuel Alito has caused quite a stir among Democrats who worry that he's too conservative for the Surpeme Court, and many of them want to delay his hearings until after the holidays so as to get a better understanding of him (and keep Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court for as long as possible!). Meanwhile, in my hometown of West Caldwell, New Jersey, people are very ecstatic about one of our own residents being picked for the highest court in the land. There hasn't been anything this exciting to happen here since. . . since. . . since. . . since. . . . All right, nothing exciting has ever happened here.

There are a lot of people here like Judge Alito: industrious, patriotic, regular folk. In other words, as boring as hell. But I doubt they're rabid bigots like Alito is. In one case he wrote a majority opinon for on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito ruled against a black death row inmate who demanded a new trial on the grounds that prospective black jurors had been struck from the all-white jury that convicted him. Alito said that the statistical evidence used to demonstrate an anti-black bias in jury selection was just as meaningless as evidence showing that a five of the previous six U.S. presidential elections were won by left-handers. A higher court overruled him and admonished him for trivializing institutionalized racism in the judicial system.

One of New Jersey's most legendary political figures of recent memory was Anthony Imperiale, an Italian-American "law-and-order" Newark politician who was also known for his virulent racism towards blacks - the classic Spike Lee villain. Alito is Imperiale without the bad hairpiece.