Debating The Tissues: What Makes A Good Cry

Schroeder, who has since discontinued her "crying file," says that it has become "almost mandatory" for male candidates to cry occasionally, as a way to "humanize" themselves. "But if a woman cries, it's 'Oh my god, do we really want her finger on the button?' "

In any case, the wife gets a pass. She's not running for anything, or trying to get confirmed. The contrast between Alito's careful stoniness and his wife's outburst could not be any more dramatic. She's any one of us, stressed out, maybe suffering from a migraine, as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested, or needing a chance (as Schroeder suggests) to stretch her legs.

Those who watched Wednesday's session point out that the immediate trigger for Martha-Ann's tears was not Democrats questioning Alito, but Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) coming to his defense.

"Are you really a closet bigot?" Graham asked.

"I'm not any kind of bigot," Alito said. "I'm not."

"Of course you're not," Graham said.

This is a crucial point, says Savannah Guthrie, a Court TV correspondent who's been covering the hearings, because it goes to the origin of tears. It's not perceived cruelty that got to Alito's wife. It's the opposite.

"She's crying because Lindsey Graham showed her some kindness," Guthrie said.

Staff writers Mark Leibovich and Lonnae O'Neal Parker contributed to this report.