Orrin Hatch Slams Alito Mafia Smear

A talking-points memorandum being circulated by Democrats to friendly media outlets attacks Judge Samuel Alito on the basis of his Italian heritage.

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch stormed Monday night that the memo was "despicable" and a sign that desperate Democrats are "hysterical" over the Alito nomination.

Hatch made the comments on MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews.

Matthews alleged that Democrats are passing around a memorandum that he called a "complaint sheet" about Alito.

The cable talk show host said the lead item in the memo claims that as a federal prosecutor, Alito failed to convict members of the Lucchese crime family in a 1988 case.

The implication is that because Alito is Italian-American he went easy on the prosecution, or worse.

An obviously angry Matthews said, "I'm sitting here holding in my hands a pretty disgusting document. This is put out not for attribution, but it comes from the Democrats. They're circulating it; I can say that. The first thing they nail about this Italian-American is he failed to win a mob conviction in a trial ... way back in '88. In other words, they nail him on not putting some Italian mobsters in jail from the family. Why would they bring up this ethnically charged issue as the first item they raise against Judge Alito?

"This is either a very bad coincidence or very bad politics," he added, and warned Democrats that their sneak attack will backfire. "Either way it's going to hurt them. ... Not abortion rights, not civil rights but that he failed to nail some mobsters in 1988 -- this is the top of their list of what they've got against this guy. Amazingly bad politics."

The memo failed to note that Alito won a major prosecution against the Genovese crime family.

Matthews isn't the only one complaining of anti-Italian smears against Alito.

A. Kenneth Ciongoli, Chairman of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) on Monday demanded an apology for the media's frequent references to the judge's Italian heritage and the use of the term "Scalito" to describe him as a clone of Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a statement, NIAF said "The NIAF is distressed by the attempts of some senators and the media (CNN, CBS) to marginalize Judge Samuel Alito's outstanding record, by frequent reference to his Italian heritage and by the use of the nickname, 'Scalito.'

"Appropriately, no one mentioned that Justice (Stephen) Breyer was Jewish or suggested that he was lock-step ideologically with the other Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It would have been outrageous to do so.

"We are justly proud of Judge Alito's Italian heritage and his sterling academic and judicial records as well as his impeccable integrity. However, he should be considered as an individual. In honor of the memory of the just departed Rosa Parks the Senate champions of civil rights should insist that Judge Alito be considered only on his extraordinary merits."