Joe Alito

Obama likes the word unprecedented, and it certainly is unprecedented that a President would castigate the Supreme Court for a recent decision while the Justices are sitting right in front of him. Then, again, it's also unprecedented for a Supreme Court justice to mutter that the president is lying: Justice Samuel Alito Mouths - It Appears - "Not True"

Alito didn't yell out his words, the way Joe Wilson did last year, and "not true" is mellower than "you lie." One expects such rigid decorum from the Justices on these occasions that it's really striking when a Justice is anything other than a statue of a Justice. I think that if they knew they were going to have to listen to that kind of in-your-face disrespect, they wouldn't have done the President the honor of sitting there, providing the scenery. But they were there, and I'm not going to criticize Alito for moving his lips and letting us see a silent defense of the judicial branch of government.

As usual with Obama, he had the eyes of the nation on him and chose to act like an ass. It happened with the health care press conference which became the "Sgt. Crowley" press conference. It happened with the joint session of congress, called to calm the post-August town hall atmosphere, which became the "Joe Wilson" speech. Now, we have a State of the Union address that has become the Alito speech.

One of the selling points for candidate Obama was that he had been a "professor of constitutional law," as if that would give him some special insight into the separation of powers. He might know that the courts are a third branch of government, but Obama clearly has no respect for them. The feeling may become mutual before too long. Note that Justices Scalia and Thomas didn't bother to show up. I wonder how many justices will be there next year?