Alito, a 1972 Princeton graduate, says he can't recall joining the group and that he may have supported it because it opposed the expulsion of military training on campus during the Vietnam War. He said he wasn't aware until recent weeks that two prominent alumni, former Senator Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat, and Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, had denounced the group.If I had been involved actively in any way in the group, I'm sure that I would remember that," Alito testified.
Alito's wife, Martha, began to cry and left the hearing room as the issue came up again. She wiped a tear from one eye when South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, a supporter of the nomination, was trying to debunk suggestions that her husband shared the group's view.
Are you really a closet bigot?" Graham said.
I am not any kind of bigot, I'm not," Alito replied. "No sir, you're not," Graham said. "You seem to be a decent, honorable man."
"Graham's statement brought out some long-held emotions about how he was being characterized," said former Indiana Senator Dan Coats, who was assisting the Bush administration on Alito's nomination.
"Her emotions just caught up with her after 2 1/2 days of hearing her husband's record mischaracterized," Coats said. Alito's wife returned to the hearing room after the committee's late afternoon break.
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito shares a moment with his wife Martha after returning from a lunch break during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 in Washington.
