摘要：During the last months of 2005, as the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court by President George W. Bush was ponderously discussed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, political activists and columnists, the background issue of Alito’s Italian heritage occasionally seeped into the discourse, but remained for the most part an issue vital only to those of Italian extraction who saw any criticism of Alito as being driven by antipathy toward his — and their — origins. Anyone following the nomination process was aware, of course, of Bush’s obligatory nod to Alito’s immigrant provenance, with the usual acknowledgements of parental hard work and sacrifice so that the bright youngster, with his own appropriate self-starting and discipline, could achieve the American dream. And Alito kept to the script when he blandly addressed the members of the Judiciary Committee with opening remarks about his hard-working parents.
