WP,pg1: Republicans Were Masters In the Race to Paint Alito

[DeepModem Mom]

Republicans Were Masters In the Race to Paint Alito
Democrats' Portrayal Failed to Sway the Public
By Lois Romano and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 2, 2006; A01


....By the time confirmation hearings began last month, Democrats knew that unless Alito made a big mistake or something damaging surfaced, he would be confirmed. But while there were endless meetings among the liberal advocacy groups, there was no coordinated strategy on the committee for questioning Alito.

Abortion was ruled out as a major issue for fear of alienating moderate Democrats. James Flug, a Kennedy aide who worked for the senator during the Nixon-era confirmation fights over Clement J. Haynsworth Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell, insisted that Kennedy and others could get traction pressing Alito's connection to the Princeton group, as well as his failure to recuse himself from cases involving mutual fund giant Vanguard, with which Alito had investments. Others believed it more fruitful to demonstrate that Alito's rulings on the circuit court never gave the little guy a fair shake.

The result, everyone agrees now, was a disaster. Committee Democrats were all over the lot the first day of the hearings, leaving their allies in the groups stricken that a valuable opportunity for tough questioning was squandered. While subsequent days went slightly better, the legalistic arguments were difficult to follow. Even Kennedy's demand for documents from the Princeton group was overshadowed by pictures of the nominee's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in tears....

***

Alito was more than ready and couldn't be budged off his prepared answers. And Republican senators such as Graham of South Carolina were prepped by the White House to do a "rehab" on Alito after any attack by a Democrat.

With the fight all but lost, Democrats had one last weapon -- a filibuster. But in the Democratic caucus, senators were uncomfortable with the idea. "It's bad politically," Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said at one meeting....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020101597_pf.html

[BillZBubb]

1. If this is the level of political judgment on our side, we hurt!

So what if the Repugs initially got the public to swallow Alito in polls????? 70% of the population wouldn't have known Alito from a cucumber. They weren't paying attention. They should have gone after Alito for being an advocate for an unchecked executive and a threat to Roe. Kennedy's stuff on CAP was a waste of time.

Had the Democrats pulled a successful filibuster, 70% would have paid attention. Then turning them against Alito would have been a battle we could have easily won. People don't want Roe overturned and they don't want to give a lifetime appointment to someone comfortable with a dictatorship.

[madrchsod]

2. more dribble from the washington post

we had 25 democrats stand up--fat tony had only two vote against him when the democrats controlled the senate! over shadowed by martha-ann`s tears? give me a break...

[bunkerbuster1]

3. "for fear of alienating moderate Democrats."

kee-ryst.

Get out the pink tutus and cue "Dance of the Sugar Plum Faries".

I just loves me some inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom.

[sandnsea]

4. Abortion is a snooze issue

The only people who really believe there will be a change in abortion laws are the fundies fighting for the change. Most everybody else thinks it's safe and Democrats just use it as a political ploy. That's why Democrats went for other issues, not because they were afraid of offending anybody. Trying to get people to wake up to ALL the horrors of right wing ideology is just as important and just as valid a strategy as sticking to just abortion.

When we talk about abortion, we need to include the rest of the assaults on women's reproductive rights because people just aren't paying any attention to abortion rights at all anymore.

[Mark5]

6. Republicans have accpeted the

fact that there are no more political parties, only advertising agencies.

They are a far superior Agency, because they know their audience, and have no illusions of their thought process, concerns and motivations and desires.

Our advertising agency expects too much from people.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Very good, Mark5 -- welcome to DU!

I agree particularly that we expect too much from people -- too much education, too much attention to what goes on, too much understanding of our system and how its supposed to operate, too much knowledge of history, etc.

[sandnsea]

9. Or backwards

The more intelligent in our party won't accept the fact that our ad agency sometimes has to consider that parts of our audience aren't much different than theirs. I wonder how intelligent that makes them really.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. "It's bad politically"?

Well how fucking bad is it to give away our democracy to right wing ideologues that believe in the "unitary executive"?

The closest synonym that I can come up with for that is "dictator".

[blm]

8. I'd say it's about 1/3 true. Post uses WH spin against Kerry and Kennedy

as usual. Kerry being political, Kennedy pandering to blacks. Washington Post is pure evil.