Media Matters catalogs the ongoing campaign by (invariably non-Italian) right-wingers to portray Samuel Alito as a victim of an ethnic slur because some people call him "Scalito." I'm Italian-American and I say this is a crock (the two are ideologically similar, their names sound alike, and one was on the Supreme Court and one has long seemed headed there -- end of story), but the right-wing slanderers persist:

...After fellow Fox News Watch panelist and media writer Neil Gabler responded that [Newsday columnist James] Pinkerton's assertion about the "Scalito" nickname's ethnic bigotry was a "Republican talking point," Pinkerton said, "I think whoever said it first made an ethnic slur ... imagine fusing, say, [Justice Stephen] Breyer and [Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg's names together, or if there had been two black justices -- that people would be screaming anti-Semitism or racism. And I think legitimately. And I think they did that on the Italian thing, and I think it was wrong." ...

Yeah, imagine that. Imagine fusing the names of two other judges, or another judge and a nominee. Just imagine...

Harriet Souter?

--title of a 10/19/05 blog post at Right Wing News

Harriet Souter?

--post at the University of Miami Federalist Society blog, 10/3/05

Harriet "Souter" Miers

--title of a post at the Cosmopoloitan Reactionary blog, 10/3/05

A few weeks ago I wrote "Grab your coon-skin hat, powder and musket and ride to the sound of the guns." Many of us did and now Harriet Souter is back where she belongs and a real conservative like Janice Brown will sit on the SC for decades to come.

--post by jeb2008 at the LionCountry.com message board, 10/27/05

It's a heckuva time to take a break, what with the nomination of Harriet Souter....

--10/3/05 post at the right-wing blog PostWatch by Christopher Fotos of Pajamas Media

Think the two situations aren't comparable? Well, think again. Souter was appointed by President George Bush and Miers was nominated by President George Bush. Souter is an Episcopalian and unmarried, while Miers, prior to joining Valley View Christian Church, was, according to her friend Nathan Hecht, "half Catholic, half Episcopalian," and is unmarried. Souter's marital status has led to smirking speculation about his sexual orientation; same with Miers.

There you go. It's a slur. So when will these right-wing bigots apologize?