# World's smallest violin playing for Samuel Alito's wife. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720 "2006-01-12T22:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/21 "2006-01-12T22:26:14Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > I’m not sure people would appreciate me putting 17,000 links in one post. I’d settle for one, but there aren’t any. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/22 "2006-01-12T22:28:41Z")
So Dio, from this I assume that if Hillary steps onto the national stage as a candidate in a few years time, playing a spotlight on her husband’s lies, affairs and womanizing and wondering what sort of a woman would take a man like that back is A-OK? Or will you be screaming that those things are irrelevant to Hillary as a candidate if that comes to pass? ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/23 "2006-01-12T22:29:43Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Wow, that’s really clever. Citing this very thread. You can’t find a cite because I’ve never said that and you’re a fucking liar. And I have never said that I think your a fucking boring asshat, but that doesn’t make it any less true. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/24 "2006-01-12T22:29:49Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > What damage was done? Alito refused to admit that he had listed CAP on his resume solely to boost his conservative credentials when applying for a job in the Reagan administration in 1985. Apparently, he felt it was worse to admit to being an opportunist, than to remain silent and suffer guilt by association. No one suggested that he even knew what CAP stood for, much less held bigoted views. Graham was dishonest to suggest otherwise, he is the one who made her cry. Put the blame where it belongs. Graham wasn’t asking the question seriously, he was lobbing an exaggerated softball so that Alito could knock it out of the park. It wasn’t a question which legitimately sought information. It was a question designed for Aliti to be able to deny being a bigot without having to discuss his possible association with CAP. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/25 "2006-01-12T22:32:07Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > So Dio, from this I assume that if Hillary steps onto the national stage as a candidate in a few years time, playing a spotlight on her husband’s lies, affairs and womanizing and wondering what sort of a woman would take a man like that back is A-OK? Or will you be screaming that those things are irrelevant to Hillary as a candidate if that comes to pass? Of course they’re irrelevant but how would that be inconsistent with my thinking that Alito’s crying wife is irrelevant to his confirmation? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/26 "2006-01-12T22:36:11Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Graham wasn’t asking the question seriously, he was lobbing an exaggerated softball so that Alito could knock it out of the park. It wasn’t a question which legitimately sought information. It was a question designed for Aliti to be able to deny being a bigot without having to discuss his possible association with CAP. I guess I think Graham deserves the pitting more that Mrs. Alito, for dishonestly portraying the line of questioning by the Democrats. No Democrats called him a bigot, they were exposing Alito as someone who would claim an association with a known right-wing group to get a job in the Reagan administration. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/27 "2006-01-12T22:37:07Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I’d settle for one, but there aren’t any. Maybe there are, maybe there aren’t. I don’t know. I do know what any rational person can extrapolate from your body of work, though ;). I bet you’d find it difficult to find a Pat Robertson quote in which he says, “I hate homosexuals” but I don’t think anyone doubts the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/28 "2006-01-12T22:38:56Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I’m not partisan. I’m an independent. I have never belonged to any political party. The Republicans trying to make hay out the crying wife is cheap and tawdry and shameless. > > And if this was the wife of a Demoratic appointee, they’d all be mocking her. So pit the republicans that are trying to make hay out of this. Hell, I’ll add in the Today Show for making such a big deal out of this, (though it was just adorable when Katie Couric tried to get all tough on a democratic senator :rolleyes:. There’s no reason to go calling the wife a cow. ---
**Author:** ![Sequent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/29 "2006-01-12T22:41:12Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > I bet you’d find it difficult to find a Pat Robertson quote in which he says, “I hate homosexuals” but I don’t think anyone doubts the matter. He’s said a [lot worse](http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/hatespeech/robertson.html) than that. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/30 "2006-01-12T22:53:46Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > So Dio, from this I assume that if Hillary steps onto the national stage as a candidate in a few years time, playing a spotlight on her husband’s lies, affairs and womanizing and wondering what sort of a woman would take a man like that back is A-OK? Or will you be screaming that those things are irrelevant to Hillary as a candidate if that comes to pass? I wouldn’t call it A-OK, but it’s bound to happen. Politics is a dirty business, and smear campaigns are nothing new. If you’re not prepared to hear some people call you everything including “murderer,” you don’t belong running for office. It’s been speculated for some time that these particular confirmation hearings were going to be ugly. Why on earth would Alito have his family members there? Is that SOP? And if it’s not, what genius came up with the idea that the committee members opposed would throw softballs just because the man’s wife and mother in law were there? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/31 "2006-01-12T23:08:15Z")
Apparently none of you watched the rest of the hearings. It turned absolutely awful. Martha Ann Bomgardner lost it again and had to calmed by the same people questioning her husband. The official transcript hasn’t been released yet but through my job I have an RSS of the transcript before it’s made public. **SENATE FLOOR, 12 JAN 2006 ALITO CONFIRMATION HEARINGS FOR THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES** **CHARLES SCHUMER, D-NY** While the process is not yet over … the evidence before us makes it very hard for us to vote yes on your nomination. I just have to tell you that I remain very troubled, not by anything in your personal history, so much as by your judicial views… **MARTHA ANN BOMGARDNER** Let him go! Let him go! I’ll blow your fuckin’ head off! I’ll kill ya! I’ll kill ya! You’re gonna die, you’re gonna fuckin’ die bad! **ROBERT BYRD, D-WV** Tell that bitch to be cool! Say, bitch be cool! Say, bitch be cool! **JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO** Chill out, honey! **MARTHA ANN BOMGARDNER** Let him go! **DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CA** (softly) Tell her it’s gonna be okay. **JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO** I’m gonna be okay. **JOSEPH R. BIDEN, D-DE** Promise her. **JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO** I promise. **ARLEN SPECTOR, R-PA** Tell her to chill. **JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO** Just chill out. **CHARLES SCHUMER, D-NY** What’s her name? **JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO** Martha Ann. **ROBERT BYRD, D-WV** So, we cool Martha Ann? We ain’t gonna do anything stupid, are we? **MARTHA ANN BOMGARDNER** (crying) Don’t you hurt him. **TED KENNEDY, D-MA** Nobody’s gonna hurt anybody. We’re gonna be like three Fonzies. And what’s Fonzie like? (No Answer) **TED KENNEDY, D-MA** C’mon Yolanda, what’s Fonzie like? **MARTHA ANN BOMGARDNER** (through tears, unsure) He’s cool? **TED KENNEDY, D-MA** Correct-amundo! And that’s what we’re gonna be, we’re gonna be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/32 "2006-01-12T23:11:51Z")
Journalists are still debating exactly why Senator Kennedy referred to Mrs. Alito as “Yolanda” in the final exchange. The likely answer according to Fox News has to do with his pet name for a desk clerk at the hotel to which he returned after drowning Mary Jo Kopechne, while CNN speculates it is a psychic insight into her past life and will be discussed in a forum with Sylvia Browne, Shirley MacLaine and Barbara Eden’s hairdresser tonight at 9. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/33 "2006-01-12T23:13:41Z")
**Sampiro** , the only word I can think of is brilliant. I suppose I could add an expletive for emphasis. That was gosh darn brilliant. Ya damn right I’m edgy. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/34 "2006-01-12T23:14:24Z")
> [@Harborwolf](#): > > So pit the republicans that are trying to make hay out of this. Hell, I’ll add in the Today Show for making such a big deal out of this, (though it was just adorable when Katie Couric tried to get all tough on a democratic senator :rolleyes:. > > There’s no reason to go calling the wife a cow. If I thought the wife had been given any legitimate reason to cry, I’d go easy on her but her husband was in no way being “abused” or treated unfairly. All the questioning about his past affiliations was completely appropriate and warranted. If her crying was authentic (though I find it a little too convenient that she was positioned in prime camera range right behind her husband) then she’s way too hypersensitive and thin-skinned to be there at all. If she’s that high strung then somebody should have informed her that it wasn’t just going to be a butt-kissing exercise and that her husband might have to answer some questions about his past that he didn’t want to answer. I do agree with others, though, that the brunt of scorn should fall on Lindsey Graham and the other legislators and commentators who truly are granstanding and trying to exploit as much mawkish sentiment as they can from the incident. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/35 "2006-01-12T23:21:38Z")
It’s too bad Senator Kennedy had to hurt her feelings while he was showing his ass. I guess the constant quest for ever-elusive political relevance is making him cranky. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/36 "2006-01-12T23:29:56Z")
> [@Evil One](#): > > It’s too bad Senator Kennedy had to hurt her feelings while he was showing his ass. I guess the constant quest for ever-elusive political relevance is making him cranky. It’s too bad Mrs. Cow-lito can’t stand for her husband to be asked a legitimate question. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/37 "2006-01-12T23:35:42Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Well grow a pair, you fucking cow. Memo to Senate Minority Leader: Have someone _other_ than Diogenes question the female judicial nominees. ---
**Author:** ![Sequent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/38 "2006-01-12T23:36:20Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I do agree with others, though, that the brunt of scorn should fall on Lindsey Graham and the other legislators and commentators who truly are granstanding and trying to exploit as much mawkish sentiment as they can from the incident. I don’t know that I’d call her a cow, but I definitely have no sympathy for her whatsoever. There’s no crying in baseball! And if her crying wasn’t staged, it might as well have been for all the policital hay made out of it. Like DtC said, if you can’t take the heat… But then I agree with those who pit the whole sordid process. They’re all grandstanding, especially the Democrats. I don’t know who they think they’re trying to fool. Even those of us in “their base” already know they’re completely spineless. Listening to Kennedy, especially: the man just likes to hear himself speak. They all do. They’re not asking questions; they’re making speeches using the interrogative mode. If you’re going to drag the guy through this at least have the courtesy to pretend you’re interested in his answers, instead of going straight to preparing your next question while he’s talking. Not every question needs to be a treatise, either: the less time Alito has to speak, the less rope he has with which to hang himself. You’d think the Dems would understand that. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/39 "2006-01-12T23:36:44Z")
Yer just makin’ it worse, man. You should shut up while you’re still (marginally) ahead. Mebbe the poor woman was crying because of that migraine. Bright camera lights in the eyes of someone suffering a migraine attack could be positively excruciating. My point is, there are other explanations that might reasonably be made and you’re looking like a bit of a dick. What, exactly is is about the woman that makes you call her a “cow,” anyway? Sounds an awful lot like you’re being abusive for some physical characteristic. And Al Franken played that tactless line to its bitter end years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720/40 "2006-01-12T23:37:59Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Mrs. Cow-lito Wow. That is just…incredibly childish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-smallest-violin-playing-for-samuel-alitos-wife/339720.md?page=3)