Republicans Threaten Democrats to Silence Alito Ethics Questions

Us News and World Report has a short piece quoting Alito supporters saying they are willing to dig up 36 year old ethics problems for Ted Kennedy in order to silence his questions regarding Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

The GOP team working with the White House to win confirmation of conservative Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is putting out a warning to Alito's Democratic critics: Question his ethics and character at your own peril. In their sights: Sens. Edward Kennedy and Joe Biden. "We're absolutely prepared to have an ethics debate with Teddy Kennedy," says one insider who mentioned the "C" word: Chappaquiddick.

Now, I'll be the last person to defend Ted Kennedy and his actions as a young man. He received similar showers of favoritism like that shown to another silver spooner in Washington, George W. Bush. Someone always seemed to be bailing these rich young men out of trouble.

I guess if they want to go back that far we should make sure we dig back 36 years on all members of Congress. We should especially revisit the behavior of the President in his drug and alcohol days. Or maybe we should revisit his Air National Guard Days and truly get to the bottom of that story.

The Alito supporter isn't quoted by name, so we can't just dig into his past. We will have to check up on everyone. We should start with Alito's most ardent supporters and move down the line. I wonder, though, why the supporter wasn't quoted by name. Do you think maybe he knows that threatening to expose new or rehash 35+ year old ethics questions in the current climate in Washington might be just plain stupid?

Ted Kennedy has weathered many political bumps and bruises. If they don't have anything new to throw at him, I'm confident he can weather having the same old crap tossed his way.

Matt Stoller at Mydd.com has more.