On Roberts, Rove, and the liberal response:
I want to prove to the entire frickin' country that the Left Wing Noise Machine can raise its voice to within an octave or so of that of the Right Wing Noise Machine. If those idiots can be heard and can have an impact, the God knows we can be heard, and we can make an impact. And when I say "we," I mean us -- the netroots -- in conjunction with our more traditional media cohorts (AAR, The Nation, The American Prospect, TDS, Countdown, etc.) and with our interest groups (Sierra Club, unions, NARAL, NOW, NAACP, etc.). And when I say "in conjunction with," I mean "regardless of the particular issue upon which we are highlighting our disagreement with Judge Roberts, we will tie that specific disagreement into an overarching, consistent, concise theme about his -- and BushCo's -- overall disregard for the majority of Americans."And as for our elected cohorts, the congressional Democrats, you know, I'm not particularly uncomfortable with their initial response. I thought Dean was, obviously, more hard-hitting than Reid, but they each took a front on the (albeit subtle) attack: Dean on Roberts' general wingnuttery, Reid on how he's a rush nominee to take the spotlight off Rove. And hell, we have not yet had Biden on eight different TV news shows saying "I love the guy!" which makes me very happy. I honestly don't believe it behooves them to come out screaming yet. So, what they need to do now is:
Lie low, and let us do the talking about Roberts. (Not that we'd let up on Rove, either.) Then, the elected Dems need to spend August: (1) doing their research in excruciating detail to find out everything on Roberts; then map out, also in excruciating detail, a strategy and all questions; while also, without relenting (2) hammering, hammering, hammering away at Rove/Treasongate, not ever letting the public or the RWCM forget that W's most trusted advisor and "brain" is a traitor.
Then for the Dems: use the confirmation hearings to expose everything about Roberts, completely and nakedly, getting him on the record about everything. I don't necessarily know that he'll be filibustered, or possibly even should be (I think it's a pipe dream that Bush would put up someone more moderate), but our guys in the Senate MUST let this guy spell out for America exactly who he is and what his vision is for this country. Again, I'm OK if the "official" Democrats wait till the confirmation hearings for all this, so long as someone (like us) gets Roberts' story out there. And an advantage of spending August hitting the Rove story hard is, that by the confirmation hearings, the general public will have had six weeks or so hearing about how Bush tends to put his trust in criminals, liars, and other unsavory sorts. THEN they'll be more appreciative of hard-hitting confirmation hearings; after all, the Dems have to make sure Roberts isn't like the other guys Bush hangs with.
And THEN, we ALL -- elected Dems and Noise Machine alike -- use Roberts, regardless of whether he is confirmed or not, as a key component in our take-back-the-country strategy for '06 and '08, tying him in to the Repug party's overall disdain for the things that matter to most Americans.