Scalito or Mussolito?

Reader Dave Wolcott points to this Wash Times AP story about Samuel Alito which declares the SCOTUS nominee's "record seen as 'pro-government'."

"Across the board, he has a pro-government inclination," said Craig Green, a professor at Temple Law School. "It's not quite uncommon for people who made their careers in government to be more favorable."

Before becoming a jurist, Judge Alito was a lawyer in the Solicitor General's Office and then the Attorney General's Office in the Reagan administration, chief federal prosecutor in New Jersey and a law clerk.

The best quote in the story is this no-way-i'm-saying-it-but-ain't-I-saying-it bit:

"No way am I saying he's a government hack," said Mr. Green, who also worked in the Justice Department and with the Solicitor General's Office, and was quick to add, "but it's the strongest theme of his work."

Whole thing here.

Mandatory Mussolini-allusion disclaimer in this super-sensitive anti-defamation age: I'm half Italian myself, so I get at least one free pass. Check out my Grandpa Guida's Ellis Island arrival record here; exactly how and when Grandma Guida got in the country for good is not fully documented. And one of my mother's brothers fought–for the U.S., wise guys–in Italy during WW2; surely he fought in part so a lesser generation could survive to make Mussolini jokes (and not so we could hum pro-Benito Cole Porter tunes).