THE ITALIAN ANGLE

Here’s the original source of Chris Matthews’ complaint about Italian-baiting from the anti-Alito forces. It’s the first item in a series of crude, results-oriented attacks on Alito. But I have to say I don’t think it’s prima facie evidence of trying to use his ethnicity against him. It’s an allegation of incompetence as a prosecutor, and it falls before his record as a judge chronologically, and so its inclusion near the top of a list of attacks is not necessarily damning. I’d say that the bulk of this ethnic huffing and puffing has actually come rather cynically from the pro-Alito side. Crude and unnecessary.