Samuel Alito is never going to a State of the Union address ever again, because he found out people don’t like it when Supreme Court justices disagree outwardly with stuff the president says, like he did at the last one. Alito does not want to sit there “like the proverbial potted plant,” he said, because how fair is it when only the one guy delivering a speech is allowed to talk during the speech? Alito and Joe Wilson should get to shout out racial epithets at Obama or perform scenes from A Streetcar Named Desire during the State of the Union if they want to. They are just as important as that guy.
Alito, answering questions following a speech Wednesday at the conservative Manhattan Institute in New York, also said, “Presidents will fake you out.” The institute provided an online video link to Alito’s talk and question-and-answer session.
The president will begin a sentence with an invocation of the country’s greatness, Alito said. If justices don’t jump up and applaud, “you look very unpatriotic,” he said.
But, Alito continued, then the president may finish the thought by adding “because we’re conducting a surge in Iraq or because we’re enacting health care reform.” Justices aren’t supposed to react to statements about policy or politics.
And they’re not supposed to tell the president “not true” when he’s speaking, but whatever. Obama probably tricked Alito into doing that!
All Alito wants to do is go down to Congress and 1) stand up when somebody says something nice about America and 2) sass the prez a little when he mentions he disagrees with the Supreme Court. But if he can’t do that, we may as well not even have a Constitution. How about that? Would that make you happy? [AP]
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I'm not going to weddings anymore, if I'm not allowed to scream out "Damn, would I ever love to fuck that" when the bride walks up the aisle. Whats the point if I just have to sit there like a potted plant?
There's the problem. Don't just sit there, get up and do it. Be a man of action!
You are suggesting that Justice Sammy should be an activist judge, are you?
Be kind of cool if Justice Sammy got up and shouted ""Damn, would I ever love to fuck that"
when Obama walked in.
I would pay to see that.
What is this "should be" you speak of? All judges are activists, except maybe Clarence Thomas – who may very well be dead, for all he says.
We are suggesting he should be a wedding crashing rapist as well.
What is the ettiquette? Before, or after the ceremony? I guess it would have to be before, she is still free at that point. Should you keep it in the aisle, or would it be sacrilege to bend her right over the altar?
Well, now a seed has been planted. I'm going to be straight-up offended if somebody doesn't do just that thing at my (next) wedding.
Have to be "before" the vows. After would be gauche.
Always remember, Good Girls bend at the knees, Bad girls bend at the waist.
also, lamenting "damn, I loved fucking that!" doesn't go over too well either…
I'm not going to funerals any more if I'm not allowed to scream out "Pillar of the community, my ass! The old bugger OD'd on meth while he was getting a blumpkin!" during the eulogy. What's the point if I just have to sit there like a potted plant?
This is my first encounter with you and you might now be one of my favorite people.
I'd hate to see Judge Alito sitting around like a pot plant, so this decision is good news for everyone, especially Joe Wilson.
Simon Cowell wouldn't tolerate that sort of limiting of judicial powers, either.
Alito was put on the Supreme Court to make Scalia look downright civil, compassionate and intelligent by comparison.
Fail
but, in fairness to W (or Rove/Cheney, whoever thought that up) it was another mission impossible.
The conservatives on the supreme court already have their new master, the secret investors they allowed to purchase elections and everything else.
I wondered what happened to the dude who punched Snooki.
I heard he was paid $500 and told to hang around the shore more.
I get to watch adolescents go through the rites of passage most adults consider universal. Their reactions to life's ups and downs are kind of amusing and endearing:
"Our love is the deepest and truest of all time!" "Nobody has ever had their heart broken as badly as mine!" …and etc.
It's not cute to watch a 60-year-old Supreme Court justice do the same thing: "…The justice said the annual speech to Congress has become very political and awkward for the justices…" (emphasis mine). Oh, brother.
Yes, Sammy, it really has become very political only since you've become a justice. The world is just so unfair! Now go on upstairs and wash your face, and I'll bring up a nice, cool dish of lime jello to your room. Hmm? Won't that make you feel better?
Can I have some lime jello too, plz?
I suspect the bastard drinks. It keeps you young at mind.
Too bad, I heard his after party would get real freaky.
I think Alito is maybe kinda new to this whole responsible, grown-up world of polite society where one is expected to show a modicum of respect to our highest elected official, when in an official, public setting.
These silly, boring and unfair customs just make him feel cross, and needing to pout.
Hey Samuel. It's called "judicial restraint." Try it.
[Sarah and the baggers] will begin a sentence with an invocation of the country’s greatness, Alito said. [If natural born or naturalized citizens] don’t jump up and applaud, “you look very unpatriotic,” he said.
Fixed.
Like handcuffs? Pink and fuzzy or leather?
He's a emo-guido (if that is even possible). What would one expect of such a creature?
Jesuit-trained narcissists are the worst.
Well Rehnquist liked to go in drag as the "Lord Chancellor" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe. In keeping with this tradition, and as a sign of respect, at January's State of the Union speech, Alito will shave his head down to a mohawk and carry guns under loose fitting military surplus garb, like his hero, freedom fighter Travis Bickle.
Who's got the Jodie Foster role in this little fantasy? Meghan?
Well played!
separation of powers. justices got no business in the halls of congress once they've been confirmed, not even as potted plants. they got plenty to tend to in the hollowed halls of the law.
that is not a typo.
So I can sit in the gallery (or whatever the fuck it's called) at the Supreme Court and just cold shout shit out whenever Alito or Thomas or Scalia are being morons? Fair is fair.
You can't even watch it on the teevee.
You beat me to it!
I plan to visit the Supreme Court when they are delivering the virdict in some damn big case (not that they get any small ones, but some are bigger than others) and right in the middle of the decision yell "I don't Think SO!"
Alito or Scalia sure, but you won't catch Thomas saying anything stupid; since the guy hasn't a single word in SC hearings for about five years now.
What has happened to Thomas? Has he been replaced by a sentient robot?
Sentient would be an improvement.
Think Weekend at Bernie's … Thomas actually died before he heard his first case. By now, no one on the Supreme Court can actually do anything about the situation, since they're afraid it will demean the Court's image.
I would suggest "Fags!".
Why do I get the impression Skalito likes to go to movie theaters in the black part of town and yell "don't go in there, honkey" at the screen?
Many years ago I was in the old Warfield Theatre on Market Street (San Francisco) watching the cinema classic Mandingo.
Just about the time the young heir to James Mason's plantation held Ken Norton down in a pot of boiling water with a pitchfork I realized I was the only white person in the audience.
I left before the lights came on…
Damn, would I fucking love to see Alito retire…
On a list of things I'd like to see Alito do, retirement is way below many more scary things.
joe wilson and sam alito: always cold relyin' on the kindness of strangers.
Also, Alito would like to cut one during the applause lines.
It's exactly this activity of stifling one's audience into a simulation of respectful silence that has so damaged our civil discourse during the Obama years — why, President Dumbass never told anyone they were being impolite when they yelled at him during a State of the Union address. Only now, for some reason, are such heavy-handed tactics becoming the norm.
Will he sell his seat on Stub Hub? His spot is between Kagan and Breyer. That's where you'd want to be to cheat on a test. Any test.
At least my potted plants didn't sit there and try to rub one out to Michele Bachman during the SOTU.
What this goof ball won't be there, he is probably going to Aruba to spend his corruption money at the spa casino and prostitution palace.
More likely tweeted in newspeak: "Tax breaks doubleplusgood!"
Am I the only one who feels sad that Sam Alito isn't allowed to get out more and yap his silly little yap? We have some seriously ripe wingnut sitting on our honorable Supreme Court of the United State of America. Scalia regularly farts into the mic on his speaking tours. Thomas is running for President or something. Alito throws popcorn during the State of the Union.
Get Sammy his own AM radio show. Let that sonofabitch cut loose. Maybe when he's got the reputation of Rush Limbaugh people won't keep confusing him with Sandra Day O'Conner.
I am planning a visit to the Supremes to see Kagen, Sotomayor and Ginsburg(because I live here and can do that kind of stuff). I see that on November 2- one of the arguments is ARHNOLD, the GOV of CA vs Entertainment Merchants. I do not know if the Terminator will be attending but I will definitely be trying to go that day. What a week- Stewart/Colbert followed by The Terminator and Big Mouth Sammie.
Nerd.
Say 'hi' to Nina Totenberg for me.
Is that photo supposed to be Alito's "Stanley Kowalski" look?!
Sunburned Newman, is more like it.
You mean Newman, the postman from the Seinfeld series, of course.
If you feel so bad about having to sit through one of Obumur's boring speeches, the logical thing for you to do Mr. Smarty Pants Lawyer Alito is just quit. Spare us your whining, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Now this is what I call "judicial temperament."
For a guy with a well-paying job he can't be fired from, Alito sure is whiny about how tough it is to sit through a speech without riffing on it like he's Crow T. Robot.
I just googled "crow t. robot" and found out it's one of the MST3K characters. COOL!!!1!
I never did watch MST3K (I regret that), but I'm super-fortunate to live in a city that has its own comedy troupe that does a similar show at a hip, locally-owned indy movie theater.
http://www.avclub.com/austin/articles/master-panc...
What's with all the kitty avatars? Did I miss a memo?
Honestly, I didn't realize there were so many kitty avatars when I set up my profile a few weeks back. (I'm still a relative newbie here.) I used my kitty's photo because she has the cutest little "dirty sanchez" on her upper lip, and since Wonketteers seemed like sex-obsessed nasty little monkeys, I thought they would appreciate it. Plus, isn't she adorable??
Hahahahah, oh Wonkette, you make it seem like a president has anywhere near the powers of a supreme court justice.
Have you ever seen Clarence Thomas hatefFuck Ruth Bader Ginsberg? No? Then you cannot understand what this man has to go through every day at the supreme court lunchbar.
I ate at the Supreme Court Cafeteria but I am pretty sure it is not the same as the one where the Supremes and their clerks eat. Plus the day I was there- the court was not in session and the only people at 10 Am were me, two maintanence guys and an insurance salesman talking to one of the cooks. When I read what I just wrote- I realize my life is so exciting. When I go in two weeks, I expect to eat next to Maria Shriver.
Nobody humiliates the Supreme Court and gets away with it! Nobody! NO.BODY!!!!
What is simply one more aspect of being a Supreme Court Justice that Alito can not really even fake at this point?
Is there a book out yet, an autobiography/hagiography/memoir/analysis that shows the most taciturn and seemingly disengaged member of SCOTUS to have actually contributed to the body of legal interpretation behind the scenes in some mad, magnificent way?
Or is he really just a pervy potted plant that prank calls Anita just for shits and giggles every anniversary of his confirmation?
Silly judge, "potted plant" is a metaphor, not a proverb.
If memory serves, Machine Gun Sammy's wife cried on cue during his confirmation hearing because those mean Senators were asking him questions.
I know. He like totally has to sit and pretend to respect some common negro.
After Citizens-United he should not be allowed to attend the SOTU Address. I would suggest Somalia or Yemen for a Lecture on disassembling an AK-47, or Lobbing Grenades or Wait I've got it. He could tell them to just send their money to the US CofC in DC and over throw the Government of the USA. Yeah, thats the ticket.
Do we hear someone having trouble with impulse control? Hmm. On your guard, Sonia!
Then again, what Alito said "not true" to was absolutely true and he knows it so he is probably embarrassed for looking like a total moron
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