Memory

I'm a person with a peculiar memory, so I tend to have sympathy for others similarly afflicted. I recall all sorts of facts of the sort that come in handy on Jeopardy, but I forget recent events quite readily. I'm not the sort who can tell you what color shirt someone had on at dinner two weeks ago.

But some events and conversations I recall quite well. I'm pretty sure that, were I to appear before a Congressional committee, and promise under oath to do something, I'd remember that. I'd probably also write it down, just to be sure. Promises to Congress seem like a big deal to me. (Call me old-fashioned.)

And, if where I worked there was some sort of system that was designed to keep track of such things, I'd make sure I put it in the system. Which is why I'm quite bewildered by Judge Alito's situation with the Vanguard case. Apparently, he just what, forgot?, to put Vanguard on his recusal list? And the regular account statements he was receiving with VANGUARD written on them in big letters, describing half of his financial assets, failed to remind him that he'd told Congress he would do that? At no time while he was hearing the case did he say, "Hmm, Vanguard, that name seems familiar...who was I talking to about Vanguard?" It just seems odd.

While he did ask that the ruling be withdrawn after questions were raised (by a victimized widow, no less), what does it say about his ethical standards that he needed to be reminded after the fact? Can't we count on the man to do what he says he'll do? At least when he says it to Congress?

He also has apparently forgotten everything he ever knew about being involved in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a group so strident it was even too much for Bill Frist. Which is odd, since Alito was so proud of it on his application to work for the Reagan Justice Department. He's been trying to suggest, after he has "wracked" his brain trying to remember, that maybe he wasn't really all that involved. Which would mean what? He was padding his resume?

So either he's fibbing about not remembering, he was willing to use pretense to get a job, or he has some odd brain problem? I don't think I like any of those in a Supreme Court nominee. I mean, I have a bad memory, but even I can remember groups I was in back in 1985, and why.

The odd tricks his memory plays on him become more important when I hear him talk about stare decisis and repeat his vague stance on Presidential powers. (I'd call him Artful Dodger, but he's not even all that artful.)

Since some amorphous allegience to precedent may stand as our only defense of civil liberties and human rights with him on the bench, it's troublesome to think he might somehow just not remember the decades or centuries of legal reasoning he seems to disagree with at heart.