NYT: How the Dems lost the rope-a-dope Alito hearings

[DeepModem Mom]

Two Nominee Strategies. One Worked.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 31, 2006


....As the last obstacles to confirmation faded away Monday, Democratic aides said their party had initially expected Judge Alito to live up to his reputation as "Scalito," suggesting a conservative firebrand in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. Failing to adjust to his meekness, Democratic aides admit they searched too hard for scandal in Judge Alito's past.

The White House, meanwhile, sought to take advantage of Judge Alito's low-key, almost shy demeanor to build sympathy for him. They say they succeeded beyond all expectations when Judge Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, walked out in tears from his confirmation hearings.

"Any time they are yelling, preaching, lecturing, and you are cool and calm and breathing deep, you are winning," the administration official said the White House team told Judge Alito. "What that means on television sets where the American people are watching this is, you look good and they look bad. It was the central operating premise."

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, agreed. "It was a classic rope-a-dope," Mr. Manley said, referring to the boxing tactic of leaning against the ropes to let an opponent exhaust himself punching....

***

In an interview over the weekend, Mr. Kennedy acknowledged that the Democrats had invested too much in the Vanguard and alumni group matters at the expense of making a more coherent case against Judge Alito on substantive issues....


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/politics/politicsspecial1/31confirm.html

[Beetwasher]

1. This Is Idiotic

How did Bush win? It's fucking simple. His party controls congress. There was no fucking strategy, no "rope a dope". Senate approval was practical a foregone conclusion, and up until very recently the vote was considered a mere formality by just about everyone, now all of a sudden there's something special and historic about it??? Man, what sickening propoganda.

[Armstead]

2. I disagre -- This is a logical extension of Politics as Soap Opera

We have made politics into a giant Reality Show, in which personality overcomes substance. The Democrats should have been prepared for that. The GOP is really good at coming up with people whose philosophy and actions are radical right wing, but who seem innocuous or appealing.

There's no dount that Justice Alito came across as a "nice guy," unthreatening and calm and reasonable. If Alito had been an obnoxious asshole, his views and record would have gotten a lot more scrutiny. He may have the same views as Judge Bork, but he had a much more neutral and comforting personality.

This is unfortunately, a byproduct of a lessening of core issues as a focus of politics. That's where the Democrats keep getting "rope-a-doped." By nopt offering a clear alternative on a substantial level, our side has allowed politics to become more concerned with surface.

[Beetwasher]

4. Nope, It Wouldn't Have Mattered One Bit

Yeah, they put on the theatrics, but it was irrelevant. There was no way in hell the nomination was going to fail, regardless of the theatrics. The theatrics were just icing.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Key ingredients - shilling media stacked daily with righties,

a gullible, incurious public, a greedy, disconnected, TV - hypnotized society. Things obviously need to get a whole lot worse before they can get better. This is horrifying, disappointing, but unfortunately, not surprising.

[KittyWampus]

5. Thank You! Elected Democrats Need A Strategy To Deal W/Media

bitching about it isn't going to help
pretending there is no problem isn't going to help
sucking up to the mediawhores isn't going to help
waiting for some mythical future date when we can re-regulate the media isn't going to help

[jsamuel]

6. This is bullshit, we lost because only 25 Dems voted for the filibuster

or because we only got 42 votes against Alito

All this other stuff is making shit up. The only people who decided this were our elected representatives. We called them and told them to filibuster, but they ignored us. Public opinion was far against Alito, but the representatives ignored that.