Two Classy Guys:Bush & Alito

Don't Be Frightened of all that Orange.

Pls Double Click on Images to Enlarge

The brilliant Tena was writing today on Eschaton - commenting on the Alito hearings:

"That's it. That's what it is about Alito that I couldn't put my finger on - he is openly dying to be somebody.  I don't hold that against him, exactly, except he's shown such a willingness to adopt anyone's principles if it will further him."

She is completely right.  She also got me thinking a little more about my post of yesterday, "Alito, Not Funny." (Scroll down if interested.)

Yesterday Bruce Shapiro posted on the Nation's site a piece entitled "Alito Almanac: Biography as Destiny". He got the title right, but the story wrong.

He was right that Alito was born to a comfortable, middle class family. But Alito was certainly telling the truth in his opening remarks by saying that when he entered college, he "went a full 12 miles down the road, but really to a different world when [he] entered Princeton University."

In the picture at top left you can see Sarah Cammerzell chatting with George Peper in her home. She and her husband hosted the 2005 Princeton Reunion for the class of 1972. (Alito's year) Her husband is Frederick (Fritz) Cammerzell III, a lawyer in Princeton who enjoys going to Tiger football games, having been a Tiger letter winner himself in his Junior year.  After graduating from Princeton, Mr. Peper devoted himself to writing about Golf. He is now semi-retired but continues to write articles from his homes in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, and St. Andrews, Scotland. In the second photo, the man at the far right is Andy Dayton. Next to him is Jim Robinson. Jim can be contacted at the New York Banking firm of Lehman Brothers. Andy is a member of the Society of Cincinnati, and his great-great-great grandfather gave the eulogy for Lafayette in 1834. They had served together in the Revolutionary War. (I am not sure I'm right about the number of "great"s)

These pictures were selected at random (more are here), and it did not take a lot of googling to find these few biographies.

Alito's classmates did not have public school teachers for parents. If one of their grandparents spoke any foreign language, it was French. Their mothers did not work. (definitely not outside the home, and probably not much inside either)  Alito was going to a college that was slowly changing from essentially a private men's club to a modern University.  He wouldn't have been alone at Princeton - in his day, there were a few like him - but he would have been plenty lonely. He was not running into his classmates at Deb parties in New York or Philadelphia, nor on ski vacations. But, naturally, Alito wanted to be "comfortable" there. The way he chose to accomplish this seems to have been to do whatever was necessary in order to fit in.

The guy has probably spent his whole life "dying to fit in." The first physical sign of his being admitted into the WASP elite was his Princeton diploma.  He joined the Concerned Alumni of Princeton in order to stop that passport from being devalued.  He emphasized his membership in that group when he applied for a job at the WASPy, very conservative Reagan Justice Dep't. He's smart. He knew what would help land the job. To help establish his right wing credentials, his praise of Bork could not be strong enough. He did what he thought he had to do to get where he wanted to go.

As I tried to argue yesterday, he has a lot of similarities to Clarence Thomas.  They both came a long way in this world, and they did not let any principles get in the way of their burning their bridges behind them.

Comments

[tena]

You're really too kind.

It's a good post - I think you've captured Alito really well.

Thanks for sending me the link.

[ThatGayConservative]

Biden's Princeton slam was the funniest part.