Reporting From Alaska

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Alito, working with Wall Street Journal editorial page, amplifies ProPublica investigation of his undisclosed Alaska freebie

Justice Samuel Alito and his buddies on the Wall Street Journal editorial page produced a turgid response to a ProPublica investigation about Alito’s fishy Alaska vacation before they had read it.

Journal editorial writer Kim Strassel, who claims to live half the time in Wasilla, wrote on Twitter that Alito “destroys the silly piece from the hit team” at ProPublica. She is clueless.

Alito and his inept PR squad from the Journal managed to focus the national spotlight on Alito’s free adventure in Alaska by publishing a press release attacking it in advance, guaranteeing that the first-rate newspaper work would get more attention from readers.

Alito and Co. stayed at the King Salmon Lodge, owned at the time by California real estate magnate Robin Arkley II. Had Alito been paying the cost, he would have been handing out about $1,000 per day.

“On the last evening, a member of Alito’s group bragged that the wine they were drinking cost $1,000 a bottle, one of the lodge’s fishing guides told ProPublica,” the report said.

It was a “comfortable but rustic facility,” Alito sniffed.

Below are some of the more entertaining excerpts from Alito’s officious press release, which he coordinated with the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, a connection that deserves investigation as well.

The judge protests too much in his long-winded excuses for failing to follow the federal law and disclose the freebie. He claims the private jet of billionaire Paul Singer that he few on was a “facility,” not a private jet and he was allowed to keep the gift secret. No Supreme Pooh-Bah could say it better.

It’s almost as if Alito thinks that he received the trip from the billionaires not because he holds one of the most powerful government jobs in America, but because of the power of his personality.