On the House floor tonight, when the president’s Cabinet came in after the Supreme Court justices, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff made a point of going over to vigorously shake Justice Samuel Alito’s hand. The significance? They were once together on the Third Circuit bench, and Senate Democrats tried to get some mileage out of one or two cases in which Chertoff and Alito disagreed, and in which some of those sharp words were traded of the kind that confident legal thinkers sometimes exchange. But in truth there is enormous respect between Chertoff and Alito, and we saw it plainly tonight when the former congratulated the latter with a hearty clap on the shoulder.