Think Outside The (Tissue) Box

Ok, I'll get out my cyber-oven mitt in preparation to get flamed here, but...

Can we cut Martha-Ann Alito a little break here? 

As most everyone knows, she infamously cried in view of cameras during her husband's Supreme Court confirmation hearings earlier this week.  If you've been around W&C long enough, you know I am as lefty, liberal, and cynical as most of my peers... but it really surprised me that folks think it was done on purpose, a means of gaining sympathy, or a "Rove-ian cue."

Things that would have set my "A-ha!" radar:
Crying during the Democratic questioning
A more subtle cry... the whole quivering lip, trying not to "ugly" cry... is hard to perfect. 
If she was a "trained" politician's wife
... and most importantly...
If her husband's nomination was ever/even close to being in jeopardy

I have erroneously read (on non-news sites) that it was harsh Democratic questioning that made her cry.  While this is likely indirectly true, her breakdown occurred during Republican Senator Lindsay Graham's praising of her husband. 

Take for instance, my mom... when her mother died she was stoic throughout the entire wake, funeral, and burial, then she is in the supermarket one day,  the cashier innocently asks her "is everything okay" and she breaks down right then and there.  I think a similar thing happened with Mrs. Alito. She expected and was prepared for the jabs, barbs, and knives... but when it was nearly all over and at an unexpected time (in this case, something "nice" being said) that's when she lost it.  I think that is a most human and natural reaction.

That said, I have no problem with the gloves-off handling of Judge Alito... so no criticism of what was said or done by the Democrats (I would have fully expected the same if the party roles were reversed).  Personally, I find the direction the Supreme Court to be quite troubling and Alito's "Concerned Alumni of Princeton" bob-and-weave total bullshit...

So yeah, go after the person who wants the job... and this may be some innocence counteracting my cynicism... but let's cut the wife some slack.  I am guessing this is a woman who has probably had a quiet and uneventful life up to this point... she didn't ask for the job, the front-row seat, the television cameras, or the 18 hours in the limelight (and now 15 minutes of fame).  I know this is not a business where nice guys finish first, but I much prefer the right-wingers have the monopoly on the mud-slinging and the so-called politics of personal destruction.