Thrust Into Limelight and for Some a Symbol of Washington's Bite
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: January 13, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - All week long, Martha-Ann Alito has been a silent presence on Capitol Hill, a supporting character in the Supreme Court confirmation show starring her husband, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. But on Thursday, a day after she left the hearing room in tears, Mrs. Alito was in the limelight.
Republicans held her up as a victim of Democrats' browbeating, while Democrats, backpedaling, insisted it was a Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who caused Mrs. Alito's upset.
One fact was not in dispute: Mrs. Alito has generated sympathy for her husband in the hearing room and, perhaps, beyond Washington among Americans who had otherwise tuned out.
"You know, we talk about stare decisis, we talk about all of these arcane subjects that only a lawyer could love," Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said. "But that's something all of us could understand. So I think it's had an effect."
At the center of the discussion is a gregarious former law librarian who has become, for some, a symbol of all that is wrong with Washington politics and the toll that it takes on families. In some ways, Mrs. Alito is a classic suburban mother, working part-time as a substitute teacher when she is not shuttling her teenage daughter, a champion swimmer, to practices and meets. Friends say she has devoted the last 20 years to raising her children and supporting her husband and his career....
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/politics/politicsspecial1/13wife.html