Alito's Way - The Crying Game

Misdirection is something that we magicians do to get you to look the other way. What's up with the wife of Judge Alito bursting into tears, not when he is being grilled by a Democrat, but rather while Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is showering him with praise? That's right, Judge Alito was being told by the Senator that he was beloved by all the minorities that had ever worked with him. He wasn't a bigot, because over thirty years, nothing but accolades for his affirmative actions have been given to the Judge. Graham went on and on about how he had letters to prove that he (Alito) was not in fact a bigot as the Democrats had seemed to suggest by their backhanded insinuations. I believe that she began crying at the very point at which Graham, stated that he couldn't find the letters that he was talking about. Maybe Graham's ineptitude set the tears in motion.

Certainly to me it did look that she was simply overcome with the emotion of the entire proceeding. However, to look at the media portrayal after the event one would think that she burst into tears because Ted Kennedy stood on his chair and shouted "You Bigot! You dirty BIGOT! YOU SHOULD BURN IN HELL!" at the top of his voice.

To give you an example how the media is using this as misdirection: Bloomberg.com's headline is "Democrats Attack Alito on Abortion, Princeton Group" then in the text they write:

"At one point, Alito's wife left the hearing in tears as her husband was being questioned about his membership in the group."

Funny how they left out the part that says she left crying during the monsoon of praise from Republican Senator Graham. Well that's misdirection for you. A crying wife becomes the story. Next time they'd better tell her to start whimpering when Teddy is ranting, it would make a lot more sense. I'm not suggesting that it was a set of crocodile tears, not at all. But every good magician knows that when the waiter drops the tray, it's time to bring the elephant onto the stage. I just want you to know what we magicians can do with reality.