The Alito testimony you won't hear

By Stephen R. Dujack, Writer/editor STEPHEN R. DUJACK graduated from Princeton and covered CAP for the university's alumni magazine from 1976 to 1986.

IN 21ST CENTURY Washington, fame doesn't last for 15 minutes anymore. It lasts for a single news cycle. There is the big press release. The next morning the major newspapers spell your name right. But by noon the Drudge Report runs a shotgun blast of half-truths and innuendoes, and by evening pundits are sifting through your entrails on CNN and Fox. Can citizen participation in government survive the advent of the Internet search engine?

Late last Thursday, Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a list of witnesses to testify for the Democrats on Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s nomination to the Supreme Court. I was on that list — a mere writer with a bachelor's degree — among all the distinguished household names. But by the end of the day Friday, I wasn't on the list anymore.