Were Mrs. Alito's tears staged?

[derby378]

Me, I think it made a great photo-op. Now everyone other than James Wolcott is talking about those "bad ol' puddy-tat" Democrats who made the judge's wife cry. But what do you think? Vote now!

[fasttense]

1. I think she is going into menopause

and her hormones are making her cry. I do the same thing. Thank-you cards and touching commercials can make me cry. Women our age will cry over anything, we are really good at it. It's just the hormones honey.

[liberal N proud]

2. All staged to bring the fundies forward with calls of harassment

they want the fundies to attack the Democrats for of all things asking questions.
After all that is not what these hearing are about, this is supposed to be the time when the Senators praise the nominee so they can get finished and do the "Up or Down" vote thing. RIGHT?

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Oh yeah... BIG time staged!!!

Check out this dKos post - it lays it out quite nicely.

Oldest lawyer trick in the book - make the loved one cry on cue for sympathy.:puke:

[BuyingThyme]

4. She cried because she was been exposed as a bigot's wife.

She cried because she raised a family in a household of hate and lies.

She cried because she's a piece of human garbage and just realized it.

[Connie_Corleone]

5. I don't know, but the Repubs are going to milk it for all it's worth. nt

[yy4me]

6. Quivering chin, croc tears, great performance!

Diversion.

[lonestarnot]

7. I think she had to crap and was afraid to ask where the facilities were.

[drduffy]

8. It's easy to cry on cue.

all I have to do is think of my last dog's death.

or, think of the toilet the US is spiraling down......

[mwb970]

9. Women cry a lot, about everything - haven't you noticed?

Why is this such a big deal?

She could have been crying because she was proud of her husband. Or maybe she was suddenly moved by the fact that she is actually present at the center of her beloved nation's government in action. Or maybe she was having one of those "I'm going to cry about the next event with any emotional content that occurs in front of me" days. I've had a woman cry when she saw a baby bird in a nest during a walk in the park.

I'll bet if you asked her, she wouldn't even know why it happened.

[dogfacedboy]

10. I'll bet a dollar that when Saturday Night Live

parodies the hearings, Mrs. Alito will be played by Rachel Dratch, and it will be hilarious.

[Cooley Hurd]

12. ...or Tina Fey in a fat suit.

;)

[derby378]

11. ginbarn is asking me, "What about Lindsey Graham?"

She's got a good point - it was Alito's wife who cried, yes, but only during Graham's harangue against Kennedy and the Democrats.

[ClintonTyree]

13. Interesting also, Graham is Alito's "coach" for the hearings.......

they wouldn't have staged something like this. No, never. Not a bunch of Republicans. Why, they're as honest as the day is long.
Get ready, here it comes.......... :puke:

It was all VERY choreographed, meant to happen at that particular moment. 10 seconds before she was positively radiant, beaming with pride for her fascist hubby. Then..........the water works appear out of nowhere. STAGED!

[flpoljunkie]

14. Lindsay Graham's very good. He played her emotions like a fiddle...

From the Washington Post...

Referring to the flap over the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) asked Alito, "Are you really a closet bigot?" Replied Alito, "I'm not any kind of bigot."

Graham said the issue smacked of "guilt by association" and emotionally told Alito,"I am sorry you had to go through this. I am sorry your family had to sit here and listen to this."

At that point, Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, began to weep and briefly left the hearing room.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[foreverdem]

15. I think she did stage it

She could see her husband was on thin ice with the Dems, I'm sure this ploy was discussed way before to try and garner sympathy for him, should he need it. Nice try, but I think she was pretty transparent.

[dryan]

16. My 2 cents...

I don't think very much of women who cry in public.

[Batgirl]

17. calculated and manipulative

This crying event and the subsequent reactions on DU illustrates why one of the very things I love about liberals and in particular many if not most DUers, is their almost limitless capacity for human empathy. It's a virtue that at times makes us vulnerable to being manipulated by those who actively seek to destroy many of the values we hold dear.

It's an understatement to say the liberal personality is one of softheartedness. We all know it, probably even the ones who cultivate a "tough" persona. We know that the Repubs have long since recognized and exploited this tendency of ours. Empathy and kindness and a belief in fair play, which are virtues, are viewed by our political enemies as a weakness. One that they've learned to exploit. Many of us, realizing this, feel compelled to step away from our kneejerk reaction of sympathy (in this case, the crying wife) and try to evaluate if, once again, we are being played like so many times before.

The Repubs have taken the art of manipulating public perception to an entirely new level, which the networks eagerly support because they've long since given up reporting on news in favor of maudlin soap opera narratives. This latest episode seems so well-timed, so tailor-made to suit the needs of the Repubs and the networks in delivering another dose of gossip-magazine melodrama to the masses. One that conveniently shows Dems they'd subsequently better handle Alito with kid gloves or his wife is going to break down on cue and they'll look like heartless monsters to the viewing public.

I'm far from exempt from being set up and sucked into the quicksand of liberal mega-empathy. Putting myself in soemone else's shoes is something I don't even do consciously, it just happens. So of course one of my reactions to Mrs. Alito's tears was to think how, if I felt my husband was being attacked or mistreated, I might get emotional too. But when it comes to this evil faction of Repubs, I'm fresh out of empathy. These are the people who are out to take away, not only my individual rights and freedoms, but everything I hold dear about my country. And they'll stop at nothing.

When it comes to public displays of emotion by these people, who've had plenty of time to calculate and plan, who've proven themselves to be masters of stage management -- and in a case where the stakes are so high -- I've learned to err on the side of skepticism.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

18. Well said.

:yourock:

[txindy]

19. Oh, yeah

Absolutely. And the people here who were projecting their own experiences onto her won't change her motivation one bit. She wanted sympathy and a distraction. She got both. Today she's in "good guy" white to tap into the symbolism found therein. :eyes:

[Walt Starr]

20. Planned as a contingency for the CAP truth weeks ago

Definitely staged and planned for the moment the CAP stuff started seeing the light of day.

[deutsey]

21. There's definitely a pattern

Think of Ollie North's performance during Iran-Contra, Clarence Thomas' "high-tech lynching" remark, GWHB's "attack" on Dan Rather, etc. They're masters at distortion, distraction, and diversion and know how to "sell" themselves (and their wars) through sophisticated marketing/manipulation techniques.

[Chiyo-chichi]

22. I think she cried because

she secretly agrees that her husband has not supported women's rights. She is ashamed of his involvement with CAP and has tried unsuccessfully to get him to come around on women's issues for years. When Graham apoligized, she was thinking "my pig of a husband doesn't deserve an apology," and all of her frustration was released in tears.

That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

Spread it around.