DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 30, 2024

RIP, Lonnie George:  I’ll leave it to others to examine the Del-Tech aspect of the story.  For me, Lonnie was the Speaker of the House during my first two years working for the Delaware General Assembly.  Much to everyone’s surprise, likely including Lonnie and Bob Gilligan, the Democrats won control of the House in 1982.  This followed a gerrymander led by the R leaders in the House.  While our brief stay in the majority lasted only two years, they were two great years.  Lonnie and Bob had assembled a great team, led by Chief-of-Staff Paula Lehrer.  Mark Brainard was her top assistant.  Maryellen Quinn was Lonnie’s executive secretary, and she set very high standards.  Doris Dayton was our Chief Clerk and, since I was the Reading Clerk, she taught me a lot, especially on how to eavesdrop on the Speaker (who had a phone on the podium) without appearing that we were eavesdropping.  They kept giving me more stuff to do, and I flat-out loved those two years.  I shudder to think what it might have been like had my first two years been under the Schwartzkopf/Longhurst team.   Anyway, Lonnie set the tone–professional but creating a work environment where people could thrive.  I thank him for two of the best years of my life and for helping me realize that my peeps were in Leg Hall.  My deepest sympathies to his family.

Alito Vs. Alito.  Spoiler Alert:  He doesn’t care that he’s full of shit.  Not gonna recuse, either.  Nothing you can do about it:

For the moment, let’s just assume the facts are as the justice lays them out: Martha-Ann Alito, embroiled in an acrimonious dispute with a neighbor — a dispute related to the election, something that Alito notably neglects to say — took to semiotics, in the extreme form of an upside-down U.S. flag, to convey her distress.

Thus saith her husband the justice: “I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.”

“My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly,” Alito wrote the two senators. “She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.” As to the second flag, an “Appeal to Heaven” banner at their New Jersey vacation home, that property “was purchased with money she inherited from her parents and is titled in her name.”

Alito wrapped himself in an unconvincing blend of faux feminism and free speech, with an Alito-esque helping of victimhood. “My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” he wrote. Yes, she does — and, like other spouses of prominent individuals, she has an independent responsibility, to her spouse and his institution, to behave appropriately.

More Alito: “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.” As I’ve written about Clarence and Virginia Thomas, each of them gets to have their separate career, but when one impinges on the other, something’s got to give. To say that isn’t anti-feminist — it’s pro-ethics.