Alito and Obama Face Alleged Breaches of Etiquette

WSJ.com ^ | 1/28/10 | JESS BRAVIN

[Tzimisce]

Get off Alito’s back.

Does ANYONE think that Alito was “breaching protocol”?

Obama took the chance to mock them publically, did he really not expect even a wince?

I guess not since he expects people to remain silent during elections....

[Reagan Man]

Not showing up out of fear, is not what I meant.

Zero insulted the SCOTUS. Something I’ve never seen and something I doubt has ever happened before. Next year, they might decide to boycott the SOTUS.

Frankly, I would encourage the Justices to do just that.

[Hildy]

Alito’s reaction was a normal reflex action when you hear someone lying. How on earth was he supposed to know that the camera was on him. I’m getting sick of the media telling everyone how they’re supposed to act.

[shield]

Alito did NOTHING WRONG...he said it to himself...and his reaction was understandable...he can’t be faulted at all. The POSOTUS is the creep here.

[Chunga]

I’m getting sick of the media telling everyone how they’re supposed to act.

Damn straight Hildy! Good one!

[Chunga]

I’m getting sick of the media telling everyone how they’re supposed to act.

Damn straight Hildy! Good one!

[DemforBush]

Pfeh on Glenn Greenwald and the other spinmeisters making hay out of Alito’s reaction. Even if it was a breach of ettiquette, it hardly is comparable to Obama’s statement. A president taking an unprecedented, deliberate, and factually incorrect swipe at one of the three branches of government is a whole lot worse in my book than the target reacting with honest shock and disbelief at what just happened.

BTW, I would just like to take this moment to say, once again, the myth of Obama’s “unflappable coolness” has been debunked. He is one of the most easily rattled pols I’ve ever seen.

[csense]

I would think that a breach of decorum would involve an act that is visible, and/or audible, by a majority of the chamber. An act which by it's boisterous nature, solicits attention to itself. I find none of this on Alito's behavior.

For all we know he could have been experiencing a sudden attack of heartburn while he mouthed to himself,"that was some stew."

[des]

Juvenile in chief.

[Southbound]

A less restrained and less dignified person (like me and a lot of other freepers, for instance) would have said, “Why you lyin’ SOB” and wondered how soon I could get one of those birth certificate cases up in front of the Court.....

[kittycatonline.com]

who would be more at home in a Banana Republic than a Constitutional Republic.

Precisely. BO seems to believe the judicial and legislative branches of government should be in obeisance and subservience to the executive branch. That might be how his buddies Fidel and Hugo run things, but we got that irritating Constitution thing, don't we?

[teletech]

Will we EVER get the tarnish off of the office of the President after Obama? HE is an all time National Disgrace!

[paudio]

Alito’s was a personal reaction that was not meant to be broadcast. 0bama’s was personal attack against the American system that was meant to be broadcast to the whole world.

[kcvl]

Jess Bravin

Jess Bravin '97 has been named the newest John Jacobs Fellow at UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS). Bravin will apply the fellowship to work on a book examining the Bush Administration's use of military justice for terrorism suspects.

******

In May 2004 Jess Bravin broke the story of a Department of Justice memo (now infamously called the “torture memo”) that defined torture as having to include “excruciating and agonizing pain.” It suggested that the President had authority superseding U.S. anti-torture laws and that U.S. personnel had several legal defenses against criminal liability in torture cases. Jess Bravin now reports in the Wall Street Journal that there’s a new Justice Department torture memo. (The Washington Post and AP also have stories.) This one is authored by the Office of Legal Counsel and claims to clean up some of the language that raised alarm in the earlier memoranda from August 2002 and March 2003

[kcvl]

Two Prosecutors At Guantanamo Quit in Protest:

Rather than take part in military trials they considered
rigged against alleged terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

JESS BRAVIN / Wall Street Journal
1aug2005

Maj. John Carr, then a captain, and Maj. Robert Preston accused fellow prosecutors of ignoring torture allegations, failing to protect exculpatory evidence and withholding information from superiors. Altogether, the actions “may constitute dereliction of duty, false official statements or other criminal conduct,” Maj. Carr wrote in a March 15, 2004, email summarizing his complaints to the then-chief prosecutor, Army Col. Fred Borch.

The Defense Department says the allegations were investigated and found to be without merit

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/Guantanamo-Prosecutors-Quit1aug05.htm

[scott7278]

Justice Alito's reaction departed from the traditional expressionless, stone-like pose the justices take when attending politically tinged events.

It has traditionally been expressionless, but this _resident took the unprecedented step of deliberately attacking a co-equal branch of government and encouraging the thugs to bully them through mean-spirited applause. Alito was right to show his irritation in that instance.

[proud_yank]

It’s ended up doing his political agenda a lot more harm than good.

Exactly. More people are realizing that he is a childish bully.

[scott7278]

I wonder how many people that should have been pointed out were there. What was the point of going if the _resident wasn’t going to acknowledge them? Did they pay their own way there?

Traditionally, presidents point out people in the room to show in a real and symbolic way that the State of the Union is about us.

We are in unchartered territory here. Obama was against the Supreme Court, and gave Congress a warning shot across the bow that he will go around them via executive order if necessary. There should have been audible gasps by everyone in the chamber at that.

This State of the Union was an attack on the Constitution. Obama violated his oath (the 2nd one) in front of the nation.

[Gene Eric]

I raise your call by Breach of Liberty.

[caww]

Yep!..I’ll just make a u-turn here and off this thread..