NYT/AP: Alito Critics Cite Inconsistencies ("credibility gap")

Alito Critics Cite Inconsistencies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 4, 2005


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Challenging his candor and by implication his character, Samuel Alito's critics are seizing on a handful of inconsistencies and omissions in the record to raise doubts about the judge's fitness for the Supreme Court.

By themselves, the issues seem minor:

--shifting explanations for Alito's participation in a 2002 case involving the mutual fund company Vanguard. Alito had pledged in 1990 to Congress that he would step aside.

--a statement that Alito did not recall his membership in a controversial conservative Princeton alumni group until recently seeing a document.

--a 1985 Reagan administration legal brief seeking the reversal of a landmark abortion rights case. The material was not sent to the Senate along with other records.

Critics of the federal appeals court judge say they detect a pattern.

"A credibility gap is emerging with each new piece of information released on Judge Alito's record," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is to begin confirmation hearings on Jan. 9....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Alito.html

Nothing like a little editorial comment in a straight news story to minimize the impact and protect BushCo.