One of the great failures of the Democrats' fight against John Roberts was their failure to say anything remotely comprehensible in the first 24 hours after his nomination. As a result, Roberts was quickly defined in MSM as a good, positive pick -- and that image never really changed.
If you remember, the day of the Roberts nomination featured a flurry of false flags floated by Republican journalist-hacks like Bob Novak in the hours before the pick was announced. In fact, just minutes before Roberts was announced, the scuttlebutt was that the pick would in fact be Judge Edith Clement.
Thus, Democratic Senators, Special Interest Groups, and Bloggers were taken by surprise.
Also problematic, Roberts was never one of those "hot button" Judges that the special interest groups like NARAL etc. were gearing up to fight. Thus, at the time of the announcement, the attacks on Roberts by NARAL, PFAW, etc., were disjointed and unfocused.
Further complicating matters was the fact that Roberts' undeniable academic qualification, combined with the fact that he wasn't obviously an insane wingnut, led several Democrats to say vague and borderline-complimentary statements about Roberts in the first 24 hours. (Reid, in fact, said that that Roberts was someone with "appropriate experience" for the job.) When that unorganized response was put up against the focused effective Republican PR machine, the Democrats got rolled in the first 24 hours, and never recovered.
We can't make that mistake again. Accordingly, here are some strategy points for the first 24 hours after Bush announces his next SCOTUS pick:
- Don't believe the pre-pick hype. If Novak says sources tell him Judge Roy Moore is the pick -- ignore him. He is likely planting a false flag (or Rove has implanted a false flag through an anonymous leak).
- Get to work. After the pick -- We will need to get to work -- fast. For those who know anything about the pick -- Spit it out. Get it up in a diary, or somewhere where people who need the information can get it. For those who don't know anything, I have three words of advice: google, google, google. We need to learn everything about the pick FAST. (A Lexis or Westlaw account would obviously assist as well).
- NO COMPLIMENTS!!! I don't care if you're impressed that the pick went on a backpacking trip through Kenya three years ago. Or that she once said something nice about Bill Clinton. Or that she can finish a crossword puzzle in 15 minutes. Or that she owns a puppy. The Republicans will do the complimenting for us, thank you very much.
- Attack, attack, attack!! Somebody needs to make the case against the pick in the first 24 hours, and we know from past experience that we can't always rely on our Senators to do so. We must make the case against as if we're the only ones out there doing so. And we need to do it fast!
If we keep these rules in mind, hopefully the Dems won't get blindsided in the first 24 hours as they did with Judge Roberts.