Dana Milbank's Incisive (Not) Column

Dana:

Where to begin? In no particular order...(and this list is certainly not complete, but...)

Just a few notes...

Milbank notes the way Alito rocked in his chair like "the more senior justices do." Was he trying to act like the more senior justices as a son mimics his father's movements, or did he, I don't know, just feel like rocking in his chair like some chairsitters are wont to do?

The boring list of the Justices' seat positions with no rationale as to why the right/left and seat numbers matter.

A short blurb (with no context) on Scalia that reinforces the conventional wisdom that he consistently ridicules government policies with acerbic wit.  You immediately follow that with "Alito scratched his head." By tone and placement, the sentence leads us to believe it's a "What's the deal with that, Nino?" scratch and not a "I should go back to Head & Shoulders," scratch. But in fact, you have absolutely no idea why (unless, of course, his body language was a little more revealing ...but we're not told if it was).

I'm sorry; I still expect my commentaries to be informative or entertaining. How many times the newest associate justice sips from his mug during his first day of oral arguments is neither.

With the exception of the Scalia blurb, this wasn’t an blatantly ideological piece; it was just bad commentary. Maureen Dowdified, if you will. Right now, I’m going to lean back in my chair, maybe rock a little, with my chin in hand, and review this column.