Supreme Court Justice Alito Fundraises for the Right

Think Progress recently confronted Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. regarding his appearance and involvement with a conservative fundraiser. When Alito was asked whether it was appropriate for a Supreme Court Justice to attend a highly political fundraiser with the chairman of the Republican Party, Alito repeatedly stated, “it’s not important that I’m here.”

The gala that Alito attended was the annual fundraiser for the American Spectator, a right-wing magazine.

Last night, the American Spectator — a right-wing magazine known for its role in the “Arkansas Project,” a well-funded effort to invent stories with the goal of eventually impeaching President Clinton — held its annual gala fundraising event. The Spectator is more than merely an ideological outlet. Spectator publisher Al Regnery helps lead a secretive group of conservatives called the “Conservative Action Project,” formed after President Obama’s election, to help lobby for conservative legislative priorities, elect Republicans (the Conservative Action Project helped campaign against Democrat Bill Owens in NY-23), and block President Obama’s judicial appointments. The Spectator’s gala last night, with ticket prices/sponsorship levels ranging from $250 to $25,000, featured prominent Republicans like RNC chairman Michael Steele, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer (a major donor to Republican campaign committees and attack ad groups), and U.S. Chamber of Commerce board member and former Allied Capital CEO William Walton. Among the attendees toasting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the keynote speaker for the event, was Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito.

This is not the first time Alito has attended a political fundraiser.

In 2009, Alito also headlined a fundraising dinner for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which funded the conservative journalist James O’Keefe and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. Alito is reported to have helped the institute raise $70,000.

Recently, the media was atwitter with the story of Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's unabashedly liberal-leaning cable television host. Olbermann had openly contributed to three Democratic candidates' campaigns. He was suspended for a short time for violating network policies. When he returned he openly apologized for the brewhaha that ensued.

He apologized to viewers for "not having known by observation, since it is not in my contract, that NBC had rules about getting permission for making political donations, even though any rule like that in any company is probably not legal.

According to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, a justice should not "solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or candidate, or attend or purchase a ticket for a dinner or other event sponsored by a political organization or candidate."

What was Alito's response when asked about "the ethical issues raised by his right-wing political fundraising?" Alito repeatedly stated, “it’s not important that I’m here.”

Where is the outrage that a Supreme Court Justice is an openly "activist judge?" Hey, Fox News, are you outraged? Glenn Beck, where is the conspiracy theory? Rush Limbaugh, are you jumping up and down that an activist judge is so open in his pandering?

Nope! All those right wing commentators and pundits are too busy bashing anyone who doesn't think like they do.

Exploiting Sesame Street

Recently a right-wing blog characterized Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch as a "soldier to the Left’s war on Fox News."

It all began two years ago.

During an episode of Sesame Street that was originally broadcast two years ago, a character tells Oscar the Grouch, who happens to be reporting for “GNN” (Grouchy News Network), that she is switching her news viewing loyalties to “Pox News,” adding, “Now there is a trashy news show.” WATCH:

Right winger Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Hollywood” blog took on the Sesame Street menace this week.

If Mom and Dad watch cable news, it’s better than 50/50 they watch “POX News.” So what gives? PBS — a network partially funded with my tax dollars — has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch “trashy” news? The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority.

It shouldn't be a surprise that Fox News immediately joined in on the attack.

Thursday night on Fox News, host Bill O’Reilly picked up on Big Hollywood’s rant and couldn’t resist defending his network against the smear merchants at Sesame Street. “Say it ain’t so. Sesame Street trashing Fox News!” O’Reilly complained. After airing the segment in question, O’Reilly said wryly, “We may have to ambush Oscar.” Watch it:

Besides the fact that this Sesame Street episode aired two years ago, Sesame Street also spoofed other news organization or media personalities besides Fox News.

“Walter Cranky,” “Dan Rather-Not,” “Meredith Beware-a” and “Diane Spoiler,” all made appearances on the show. And of course, Oscar’s employer, the “Grouchy News Network.”

One great part of our society is the ability to laugh at ourselves. When Fox News and right-wing pundits or blogs start demonizing anything or anyone who spoofs them, then it reflects their inability to laugh. They're just wound up too tight!

"Here You Have a Racist"

Media Matters has assembled a collection of the right's most unhinged, delusional reactions to Sonia Sotomayer's nomination. The Nation's editorial, The Real Sotomayor, confronts the negative right-wing smear attack against her.

The minute Judge Sonia Sotomayor rose from President Obama's shortlist for the Supreme Court to become his official nominee, the conservative smear campaign against her went from simmer to full boil. Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice repeated unsourced accusations, of the kind first made in an article by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, that Sotomayor is "an intellectual lightweight" who was "picked because she was a woman and Hispanic." National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru dubbed her "Obama's Harriet Miers," while his colleague Mark Krikorian whined that "putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English." Politico reported that Republicans were weighing how to attack a "Latina single mother," and Mike Huckabee claimed that "Maria Sotomayor" comes from the "far left" and would unduly let her "feelings" influence her decisions.

Every element of this right-wing assault is false. Judge Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal (as did Justice Samuel Alito). Her seventeen years of experience on federal courts vastly outstrips the combined years of experience John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas had when they were nominated--seven in total. As the author of more than 700 opinions, she has proven herself to be a pragmatic centrist cut from the same cloth as Obama. Indeed, unlike Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Justice Thurgood Marshall, she was not a central member of the legal movements to advance women's and minorities' rights. For example, she once voted down a constitutional challenge to the global gag rule on abortion. Moreover, she has on occasion disappointed progressives with rulings in favor of corporations.

Finally, it should be noted that Judge Sotomayor's first name is, in fact, Sonia and that she has no children. Of course, to a conservative movement bent on running a character assassination based on ugly racist stereotypes, these are inconvenient details.[...]

Have the conservative pundits looked in the mirror lately...?