Bravo, Senator Graham!

My Senator, Lindsey Graham(R-SC) issued an apology to the family of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito during his time with the nominee today:

GRAHAM: If you don't mind the suspicious nature that I have is that you may be saying that because you want to get on the Supreme Court; that you're disavowing this now because it doesn't look good.

And really what I would look at to believe you're not -- and I'm going to be very honest with you -- is: How have you lived your life? Are you really a closet bigot?

ALITO: I'm not any kind of a bigot, I'm not.

GRAHAM: No, sir, you're not. And you know why I believe that? Not because you just said it -- but that's a good enough reason, because you seem to be a decent, honorable man. I have got reams of quotes from people who have worked with you, African American judges -- I've lost my quotes.

Judge Higginbotham -- I don't know where they're at. But glowing quotes about who you are, the way you've lived your life; law clerks, men and women, black and white, your colleagues who say that Sam Alito, whether I agree with him or not, is a really good man.

You know why I believe you when you say that you disavow those quotes? Because the way you have lived your life and the way you and your wife are raising your children.

Let me tell you this: Guilt by association is going to drive good men and women away from wanting to sit where you're sitting. And we're going to go through a bit of this ourselves as congressmen and senators.

People are going to take a fact that we got a campaign donation from somebody who's found out to be a little different than we thought they were -- and our political opponent's going to say, "Aha, I got you!"

And we're going to say, "Wait a minute. I didn't know that. I didn't take the money for that reason."

And you know what? I'm going to believe these senators and congressmen for the most part, because that's the way we do our business. We meet people here every day. We have photos taken with people -- and sometimes you wish you didn't have your photo taken.

But that doesn't mean that you're a bad person because of that association.

Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've had to go through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen to this.

I suppose it goes without saying that I haven't been Senator Graham's biggest fan of late, due primarilly to his participation in the "Gang of 14 filibuster focus group", but I have to say his decency as a human being and his willingness to stand behind principle, whether I agree with it or not, has never been in question with me.

Today, he took from his scheduled time with the nominee to issue an apology for the despicable bloviating and character assassination Alito and his family have had to endure during this process. It's a shame he had issue this apology on behalf of those who have neither the class nor the conscience to issue it themselves.

Sadly, it's the only moment in this pointless debacle that's been worth a pixel of my posting time.

Tags:Alito,Lindsey Graham,Supreme Court,Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings