Published on October 31, 2005 By Island Dog In Politics
MEDIA/DNC NICKNAME 'SCALITO' SEEN AS RACIALLY INSENSITIVE
Mon Oct 31 2005 08:42:57 ET

Before Judge Samuel Alito was even officially announced as President Bush’s next Supreme Court nominee, he met a wave of racial discrimination from numerous corners of the mainstream media and the Democrat Party. Because of Judge Alito’s conservative and Italian-American background he is often been compared to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and has been nicknamed by the mainstream media "Scalito."

This morning, on CNN’s AMERICAN MORNING host Soledad O’Brien said, "we've heard the nickname ‘Scalito’…. which is of course combining the Scalia, Justice Scalia and Alito. Let’s talk a little bit about their similarities."

On CBS’EARLY SHOW host Harry Smith claimed: "[Our next guest] will be on to talk about Alito, who some people are calling ‘Scalito’ because of his close resemblance to Antonin Scalia at least ideologically."

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee sent out talking points this morning titled: "Judge ‘Scalito’ Has Long History Of States Rights, Anti-Civil Rights, And Anti-Immigrant Rulings." More from the DNC’s anti-Italian American talkers: "Alito is often referred to as ‘Judge Scalito’ because of his adherence to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s right-wing judicial philosophy."

One outraged Republican strategist claimed, "If Alito were a liberal there would be no way Democrats and Washington’s media elite would use such a racially insensitive nickname. Italian-Americans should not have to face these types of derogatory racial slurs in 21st century America.



Comments (Page 2)
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on Oct 31, 2005
Davad -

Who first coined the term is irrelevant. The point is not that the term itself is derogatory, except that it is being used in a calculated way in an effort to minimize his personal and professional qualifications and accomplishments. The MSM, faithful hod-carriers for the left, are being fully complicit in this effort. Scalia is one of the left's prime bogeymen and playing this 40-degrees-of-separation game is SOP in trying to demonize whatever target is in their sights at the time. It is, of course, entirely transparent and pathetic, but then that's the sum & substance of the Democratic Partic these days.

Cheers,
Daiwa
on Oct 31, 2005
Who first coined the term is irrelevant

Hardly, unless one simply wishes to bash the media for passing the name along. Nearly every article I've read regarding Alito has mentioned his nickname and it certainly does not seem to be in any manner that is derogatory.

I think time will prove this harmless little nick is simply a part of the story behind the man himself, and luckily, that time will come soon enough for JU visitors to remember some said so correctly.
on Oct 31, 2005
Daiwa,

I don't agree with you but I truly appreciate the way you've stated your opinion. Some of the other conservatives here could learn a thing or two from you in that regard.

I really don't think anyone is using this term to minimize any of his qualifications and accomplishments. Even the most left of thinkers agree that he's qualified and capable of the job, they just question his ideology and the direction he could take the court, given who he will be replacing.
on Oct 31, 2005
Island Dog, could you please provide your source for the article you posted?

Thanks.
on Oct 31, 2005
Drudge.
on Oct 31, 2005
Thank you.
on Oct 31, 2005
Who first coined the term is irrelevant

Hardly, unless one simply wishes to bash the media for passing the name along. Nearly every article I've read regarding Alito has mentioned his nickname and it certainly does not seem to be in any manner that is derogatory.

I think time will prove this harmless little nick is simply a part of the story behind the man himself, and luckily, that time will come soon enough for JU visitors to remember some said so correctly.


Hey, Def.

The media is doing a lot more than just "passing the name along" as even you recognize - "Nearly every article I've read has mentioned his nickname..." I'd be willing to accept the premise of your last paragraph if this "harmless little nick" were not the lead-in to virtually every news story & TV news segment since his nomination. How many lawyers or paralegals have tagged him with this "nick"? Do we have to do a survey of all the lawyers who've ever had contact with him to determine what percentage consider him "Scalito"? The press would have you believe they all do. And they are adopting the standard technique - repetition, repetition, repetition.

Mind you, I applaud your recognition of his qualifications and probable confirmation, which is the reasonable position I think the majority will take. I'm only talking about the media's continued demonification of conservatives. They've created this fiction that the coutry is half liberal and half conservative and that the Court must somehow be "balanced". This was never their argument when the Court was packed with liberals. Noone can pretend that the media aren't trying to influence events as opposed to reporting them, at least not with a straight face.

Cheers,
Daiwa
on Oct 31, 2005
davad -

Thanks, and see my reply #22 to Deference. Props to you also for your recognition of Alito's qualifications.

Cheers,
Daiwa
on Oct 31, 2005
You talk in generalities and then start getting all hostile and try to intimidate people who offer facts in response to your BS.


Hahha. Classic. Its his long established pattern borne out of his need to be seen as something more than the tiresome, mediocre hack that he is.

The amusing aspect to watching gimps like Guy, is the predictable way in which their drama inevitably unfolds. So penned in are they by their feelings of inadequacy that they will jump at the chance to try and smite anyone holding views contrary to their own. All in the name of some vein (double meaning intended), yet ineffectual attempt to assert themselves as having any kind of authority or insight into the matter at hand and perhaps gain some smidgen of respite from their aforementioned inferiority complex.

Of course when that fails as it usually does due to a fundamental lack of familarity with the topic at hand there is the inevitable appeal to authority:

My Wife IS a paralegal


Really? Then you'd best be giving her your pants so she can come down here and fight your battles for you. God knows its the only way this chump could ever plausibly assert anything.



Failing this of course (what women wants to fight her unmanly husbands battles for him), he again, inevitably, resorts to outright personal attacks. Ineffectually attempting to fend off the avalanch of fact based retorts coming back from all those better informed, better connected, more experienced and let face it, most likely better endowed opponents he'd previously dismissed in his usual derogitory yet typically bumbling argumentative ways.

It goes without saying therefore that you can usually guarantee that any thread in which DG participates decends from what could have otherwise have been a fairly level headed subject-based debate among people with opposing views into statements and sentiment something like :

And I know for a fact your ex is full of shit or you are


..

In other words, the Guy is a doosh. As evidenced by his ill-informed, ill-conceived and unsubstantiated output.
on Oct 31, 2005
The media is doing a lot more than just "passing the name along"

I'm certain the connotation being made between Scalia and Alito will play as a huge 'tip-off' to Democrats who see Alito's decisions as damaging to their agenda, that is not lost on me, I simply don't think that was the original intent behind his nick'.

I'm no fan of the MSM myself, but if I were to fault them for their repetition (same stories, same clips repeated every fifteen minutes and echoed almost to a 't' on every other major news network) I would be attacking the least problematic of their practices. One of them being simple omission.

Did you hear of the Phillipino spy in the White House two weeks ago downloading classified information before he was caught red-handed by the FBI?

Was there one peep from any major news network of Hugo Chavez at the U.N. showing his documented proof of 'Operation Balboa', the supposed U.S. military plan of action regarding Venezuala?

Have you heard of Sen. Ted Kennedy's Hate Speech Bill he's attempting to pass (which failed last year, Senate Bill 1145) which would basically allow the Federal government more power to prosecute individuals for 'hate speech' if they were to even protest gay rights groups by reading from the Bible?

Have you heard of the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005"(S. 1873)bill which eliminates citizens' abilities to sue the makers of vaccines gone wrong?

Hell, I'm still trying to convince people that we will have a new National ID card next year simply because they've not heard it mentioned in the MSM - probably because the MSM is too busy talking about b.s. like Alito's nickname and whatever nose Micheal Jackson is now sporting (I exaggerate, but it wouldn't surprise me...) .

My point in mentioning all this is because while the MSM is busy distracting us with all this superficial crap, the real agendas, the real substantive stories aren't being reported as Americans are simply fed one mindless distraction after another.

Really, though it seems Alito does have many credentials, experience, and seems highly qualified, it is because of his judgement calls on the bench that I agree with that encourage me to lend support to his nomination.
on Nov 01, 2005
I'm no fan of the MSM myself, but if I were to fault them for their repetition (same stories, same clips repeated every fifteen minutes and echoed almost to a 't' on every other major news network) I would be attacking the least problematic of their practices. One of them being simple omission.


Def -

I agree completely. My beef with the press is not solely that they are hopelessly biased, but that their sense of what constitutes "important" news is so distorted. You did a nice job of summarizing what's wrong with the media.

Cheers,
Daiwa
on Nov 01, 2005

You talk in generalities and then start getting all hostile and try to intimidate people who offer facts in response to your BS.

You are the one who got hostile first.  Remember the 3 fingers the next time you start pointing them. You dont like it?  Dont start it.  And you were also the first to bring in the Paralegal.  And the only one bereft of arguments.

on Nov 01, 2005
What does "little scalia" have to do with calling someone a "wop"? Little Scalia is derogatory int he same sense as wop?


No, no, no. JU's preferred term is "dego." Get with the agenda.

How long before we hear about his Sinatra collection and longtime desire to be a boxer? Maybe we'll find out that as a child he had a GUINEA pig. Will y'all be doing articles on his family? His uncle, aunt, GODFATHER?

That's when I'll worry about racism. Till then, whether 'Scalito' is a name-combo, an Italian diminutive (as I took it when I first heard it), or BOTH, it's just about his similar views, not shared ethnicity.


Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go flip my Dean Martin lp. Side one is finished, and I want to get to "That's Amoré" before my Pizza comes out of the oven.

(Gene disappears into the night, grumbling something abut seeing more anti-Italian slurs in 2 years on JU than in his entire life....)
on Nov 01, 2005
BTW, "'Scalito' = Racism" is about 3 things:

1) Throwing what is seen as a Liberal tactic -- You can't say that! It's racism! -- back in their faces. "Turn about is fair play."
2) Put the other side on the defensive. The old "gain points by calling your opponent a hypocrite" ploy. The idea being they'll have to waste valuable time defending themselves, and hopefully they'll take damage if the media picks up on it.
3) Trying to get "Scalito" off the air, and maybe squash the comparison in the process. (Good luck on the latter. Nice try, though. Play again sometime.)

I have my doubts those making the charge actually believe it.
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