'80's Retro, Liberal Interest Group Style

Well, I guess you can't teach old barking dogs new tricks...

With Senate Democrats clearly outnumbered, liberal interest groups are staking their campaign against Samuel Alito Jr. on a simple strategy: Transform Alito into Robert Bork by any means possible -- whether the shoe fits or not.

"There are many similarities," notes People For the American Way's Ralph Neas, who led the coalition opposed to Bork and is helping lead the effort against Alito. Not least of these is that Alito, like Bork, is a conservative judge picked to replace a moderate swing justice. For Bork, it was Lewis Powell; for Alito, it is Sandra Day O'Connor. "This is a rare moment in history," adds Neas.

But just how closely Alito's jurisprudence mirrors Bork's is open to debate, but that's almost beside the point. What matters in the mounting slugfest over Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court is whether his opponents can sell the idea that the mild-mannered jurist is just a quieter, gentler version of Bork -- still a potent symbol of judicial extremism in the minds of most Americans.

Indeed, shaping public opinion and then persuading constituents to roar at their senators have become important elements of any judicial campaign. But it's particularly crucial in Alito's situation, where a handful of moderate Republicans and Democrats will determine whether he cruises to confirmation next month, barely squeaks by, loses an up-or-down vote, or is filibustered.

To defeat Alito, says John Samples, who directs the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government, opponents must prove "not just that he's conservative or that he's against abortion personally -- they need to show he's nuts."

And not just to the Senate. Far more effective, says Samples, is the type of messaging that frames Alito for voters. "There is a public element to this," he says. "If you can get the public to believe he's way out there, then you can move some of these senators who would be inclined to vote for him."

In Bork's case, public opinion played a critical role in scuttling his nomination in the Senate in 1987. "A lot of lies were being told, and it would have been good if somebody had been out there rebutting them," says Bork, now a distinguished fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. "You have to have your countervailing soundbites, although it's a hell of a world where we choose Supreme Court justices by soundbites."

For interest groups joining the anti-Alito bandwagon -- and their numbers are growing -- there are risks in such brinkmanship. Chief among them is that their "sky-is-falling" rhetoric may erode their credibility among the moderates whose votes they seek.

Says Christian Myers, the executive director of Progress for America, a pro-Alito lobby: "If the Democrats think they can take a few instances out of context and have a groundswell of support around those few instances, I don't think they will be successful. I think the people who are going to pay attention to this are smarter than that."

...There remain a lot of hearts and minds to be captured. With four weeks to go before hearings begin, a CBS News poll last week showed that 75 percent of the American public are undecided in their opinion of Alito, or haven't yet heard enough to have an opinion. On the other hand, the poll revealed the opposition has an uphill battle, with only a quarter of Americans saying the president's Supreme Court picks have been more conservative than they like and 50 percent saying they like what they have seen.

It's not like liberals are gaining much traction in this debate, as indicated by the fact the so-called Alliance for Justice got approximately ZERO people to show up for a rally in Colorado last week, as part of a nationwide campaign. This may be because most of America would rather concentrate on Christmas -- sorry, the Winter Solstice holidays -- than Supreme Court hearings. Unlike liberal interest groups, most Americans can find better things to do during the holidays.

This debate will be framed by a lot of petty crap that can't disguise one simple fact -- the President is entitled to deference in his choice, so long as the nominee is well-qualified. Justice Alito is more than qualified to sit on the high court, and he will. The tactics the left employed against Robert Bork worked then, but they don't control the media empire as securely as they once did. Conservatives need to be wary and defend Justice Alito vigorously. As long as the do, he will be confirmed, no matter how much wailing and gnashing of teeth we hear from the left.