“The
Question’s Mark”
By Cory L. Shreckengost
The Center for Vision & Values
Grove City College
US
With the judiciary hearings and Judge Samuel
Alito’s impending confirmation as the 110th
Supreme Court Justice now underway, Ted Kennedy
expressed a sentiment held by many Senate Democrats
when he said in his opening statement that he
is “gravely concerned.” At the same
time, Senate Republicans are lining up to sing
Alito’s praises. This is just the latest
political battle in a partisan war whose eternal
flame consumes Capitol Hill.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee files into the
Hart Senate Office Building this week, you can
be sure that some Democrats will arrive with a
quiver full of poisonous questions and their sights
set on killing Alito’s nomination. But the
Democrats aren’t the only ones armed with
projectiles. Republicans, too, will be donning
a quiver full of arrows, albeit Cupid’s
variety, hoping to ensure that all who are within
range will fall in love with President Bush’s
nominee.
Even as they take dead aim at their mark, there
will be senators who maintain that they are undecided
as to which way they will vote; but their words
eventually betray them. Under the guise of being
open-minded, senators will feign an “impartial”
line of questioning as they offer up their long-winded
platitudes or pseudo-compliments. Yet the way
in which they preface their questions to Alito
is clearly meant to engender a biased reaction
from the lay listener.
Whether their initial remarks regarding the nominee
are comprised of ominous threats or celestial
accolades, each one of the senators constructs
a well-planned oratory with the all-important
sound bite in mind.
Knowing full well that the media—being the
verbal connoisseurs that they are—will latch
on to the most eloquent inquiries and pass little
snippets on to their audience via truncated quotes
or beguiling buzz words, the members of the judiciary
committee employ rhetorical flourishes as they
proceed through their scripted notes.
Following introductory comments, some disapproving
senators will release drawn weapons as they assail
the mark with pejorative questions. Candid straight
shooters launch their arrows toward Alito like
a laser beam as they pursue a direct line of inquiry.
More aggressive senators will unleash a barrage
of rapid-fire questions at the nominee without
giving him the time to respond. Still, others
will choose the circuitous approach, where they
break out the longbow and discharge a high, arching
shot that grazes the horizon before beginning
its graceful descent and hitting the mark with
a thunderous whack.
To be quite honest, many of the senators couldn’t
care less about Alito’s answers to their
tedious inquiries. They want the listener to make
up his or her mind about Alito — i.e., come
around to their way of thinking — well before
they finish their remarks or allow the nominee
to respond. In fact, they want you to marvel at
their shooting prowess, or the skillful way in
which they turn a phrase, as if their adroit question
presciently captures the essence of the mark’s
reply.
It seems as though a few senators have surmised
that they can predetermine the inner workings
of Alito’s mind better than he — as
evidenced by the disgruntled skepticism that adorns
their faces when he replies. If this is the case,
why bother letting the man speak? Why not allow
the senators to monopolize the proceedings by
excluding Alito entirely and simply debating each
other?
Sadly, this is sometimes the case, as the media
passes their virtual reality on to the masses.
Most Americans are not able to watch the confirmation
hearing in their entirety. Instead, they depend
on the news media to provide a quick summation
and analysis, which often comes via those wonderful
sound bites —sound bites provided, not by
Alito himself, but by the senators during their
well rehearsed interrogation.
In a sense, Alito is a pawn caught in a political
tug-of-war between two competing ideologies; each
vying to shift public opinion in their favor.
By now, most of the senators have made up their
minds concerning the confirmation vote. They could
alter their decision if some miraculous sign were
to descend from the heavens, or if a skeleton
were to fall from Alito’s closet, but neither
scenario is likely. Given the fact that most of
the relevant information has already been disclosed,
the senators’ attempts to persuade the media
and the general public will revolve around a rhetorical
war of words.
Perhaps the truth is a bit too prosaic, or perhaps
a few senators sense that the truth is not on
their side. Whatever the reason, the Senate’s
solemn duty of giving advice and consent to the
President’s nominee for the highest court
in the land has turned into a cyclical struggle
over semantics. Each side is raining down a hail
of arrows, and for the time being, Judge Samuel
Alito is the mark stuck in the crossfire.
(Cory Shreckengost is a policy analyst and research
associate with The Center for Vision & Values
at Grove City College. His research has been featured
in several best-selling books and by various think
tanks, with his compositions appearing in publications
nationwide.)
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