After reading these appalling and beyond immature and just plain mean sentiments regarding Sam Alito’s wife, I find myself wondering -what sorts of people are these who cannot understand a most comprehensible situation? They see Mrs. Alito crying and assign motives of manipulation to it or suggest she is fragile and unstable.
Well, if you are so detatched from humanity that you must assign either political motivation or inferiority to a simple, human and not inappropriate emotion, then I just feel sorry for you, because there is something missing, or broken, inside.
Ann Althouse understands what brought the tears and any man or woman who has forced themselves to remain composed through a terrible ordeal, only to collapse when finally offered a bit of kindness should understand it, as well. That someone can live their whole life never experiencing such a situation suggests their lives have either been very lucky, or lived in protected bubbles, or have been so wretched that they have cut off all emotion and understanding as a survival technique.
I understand why Mrs. Alito cried, too. I have done precisely the same thing, once.
No one who knows me would call me a fainting vapor. I may be shy, but shyness does not mean non-confrontational. I have a temper and a mind of my own, and I am no “stepford” wife, by any stretch of the imagination. I am simply, like Martha Ann Bomgardner, a middle-class woman with middle-class sensibilities and a sense of justice. I can handle someone being tough toward me, or toward someone I love, and completely maintain my composure while enduring it…but when someone finally offers a kind word…well…then touched by the kindness, and full of gratitude, the eyes will well and the composure will flee.
After watching her husband, whom she presumably loves, being treated with rudeness by people who would never tolerate being treated with the disdain to which they subjected him, after two days spent watching an attempt to assassinate his character, Mrs. Alito was weary, and tense, and when Sen. Graham offered her husband some respite, and an apology, the woman was – quite properly – touched and moved.
It’s called being human. Adolescents might not understand that. Nor automatons.
Thomas Lifson understands it, too.
All of us who love, who have watched our loved ones under duress, and who have received support understand Martha-Ann Bomgardner, even if the subtleties of the theory of the unitary executive and stare decisis elude us.
The network news honchos, for all their liberal bias, know that “If it bleeds it leads,” and in this case, “If it cries, it flies.”
The Judiciary Committee Democrats have disgraced themselves.
The Associated Press, once esteemed for its even-handed reporting, put out a dispatch which implied that Senator Graham was the one who abused the judge, triggering the outburst. That the AP would attempt such a violation of common sense betrays the desperation of the media branch of the Democratic Party. It won’t fly because it does not ring true to common experience.
Michelle Malkin has a roundup of terrific links.
You’re right, Anchoress. I read the first two posts, with the Kos, etc, commenters. Amazingly sad. Just what are these creatures? They’re surely not humans. I have a hunch I know what they really are, but I will not say that here.
We face their like in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yeesh!
And yet they loooove to call us “Nazis”… Go figure.
“I find myself wondering -what sorts of people are these who cannot understand a most comprehensible situation? They see Mrs. Alito crying and assign motives of manipulation to it or suggest she is fragile and unstable.”
I’ll tell you what kind of people: Americans.
These kind of people are the products of our public schools. They are influenced by our media and their support is solicited by some politicians.
To be fair, there is a flip side to this coin.
This is a part of our nation.
I think it’s just hard to put the knives away. Sort of ties in with your other post about the seductive ease of negativity…it’s like the “Hotel California” for the unhappy and the intellectually lazy and…you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
When we come face to face with the bone deep truth of who we really are – stripped of pretension, social convention, and fantasy – we are often moved to tears. I know I am. These are not tears of happiness, or sadness, but human tears in response to profound truth.
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Mrs. Alito had listened to the lies for long hours. Senator Graham’s words brought home, for her, the bone deep truth of who her husband is, and also who she is as his partner. And she was reduced to tears. Were I her, only a triumph of determined will would’ve prevented me from crying also. Maybe. I might’ve sobbed way worse.
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This is what I was trying to get across regarding The Anchoress’ post about the Marsh Arabs and the good brought to Iraq by President Bush, and by brave Coalition soldiers. I have been, in a small but definite way, part of the effort to support OIF. The Anchoress words brought home the good of that effort to me. In a couple of places, as I read, I kinda started to get choked up.
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And its not that I cry a lot. I don’t. I wish I cried more. It is, rather, that small things – bone deep moments of truth – are what often get me. As they got Mrs. Alito.
I’m impressed she didn’t scream, “You’re a bunch of pompous asses. Is that why your party is represented by a donkey?”
They understand perfectly. I am sick of beating around the bush–let’s call them what they are—LIARS! Anyone could see they were tears of joy–Senator Graham’s words can not be interpreted as anything other than positive. We have a media dedicated to lies, half-truths and distortions to push the Socialist agenda. I think they are getting desperate because things aren’t going as planned. They need to be in power here to bail out Europe–that’s how the Ponzi scheme of Socialism works. They were supposed to have pushed through the Kyoto protocols by now and increased the cost of doing business in the US and move manufacturing to China and India. If Europe starts to reject Socialism, they will have to start all over again. Besides, they promised Satan.
There’s also the fact that many of us – at least of the female persuasion – cry when we’re frustrated, fed up, and angry but cannot do anything about the situation.
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I know I do.
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I can totally understand her crying – she’s seeing people basically slander her husband, and she knows far more than they do what kind of a man he is, and yet, if she said anything, ANYTHING in response to these guys, she’d be tarred and feathered in the press.
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And isn’t it really, pretty unfair, and pretty anti-female to say “oh, those tears…she’s just trying to manipulate us and make us feel sorry for her husband.” That’s kind of like accusing a woman who points out some injustice of being premenstrual. (And I suppose perhaps the old hormome trope has been hauled out by some concerning Bomgartner)
Lets face it. Liberals and democrats are just really bad people. I’ve always wondered why it is conservatives and republicans are better Americans and Christians. It must be genetics or something.
If your side’s position and goals matches those of our enemy, you have to expect the consequences. I’m glad you’re finally coming clean, Lyle. We hadn’t really thought about it, but you are exactly right. About being wrong.