The Moose can't help but believe that it was planned. "What sort of party doesn't admire these virtues in a judge? "The big story of American politics, which was underlined by every hour of the Alito hearings, is that sometime between 1932 and 1968, the DNA of the Democratic Party fundamentally changed. In 1932, the Democrats had working-class DNA. Today, the Democrats have different DNA, the DNA of a minority party." Sam Alito would not be the Moose's choice in a Supreme Court nominee. He is far too differential to money power. And of course, he has been evasive in his answers - that is the way the game is now played. Alas, however, the Moose did not win the last Presidential election - and neither did the donkey. While it is the proper role of the opposition party to grill a nominee, it should not at the same time make fools of themselves and expose their own weaknesses. More importantly, the donkey should consider the values and views of voters they need and have lost before the agendas of liberal interest groups. Unless, of course, Judge Sam had a plan.
If Sam Alito had choreographed his confirmation hearing, he would not have orchestrated it any differently. The critical element in his scheme would have been hours and hours of Senators hectoring, bloviating, hammering, and imposing the liberal political correctness standard of People for the American Way. At one point, according to the Alito plan, one fine Senator donned Princeton haberdashery to make his point in an ever so odd way. And the wife crying certainly helped the Democratic vote in the exurbs.
And the Democrats seek to become the majority party in this country? Have they learned anything from the previous elections?
Mission accomplished for Judge Alito! Most of America has confirmed their impression of imperial Senators who lack both self knowledge and self awareness. And, for evidence of an Alito confirmation success, this headline in the lead story in today's New York Times,Democrats Take Aggressive Tack; Alito Is Unfazed
As the Moose has argued before, the Democratic Party should have a legal philosophy that extends beyond abortion on demand and the juris prudence of the ACLU and People for the American Way. On legal and cultural matters, the national Democrats have absolutely no appeal to the "progressive traditionalists" who used to comprise the base of the party.
David Brooks perceptively writes in the New York Times,
"Alito is a paragon of the old-fashioned working-class ethic. In a culture of self-aggrandizement, Alito is modest. In a culture of self-exposure, Alito is reticent. In a culture of made-for-TV sentimentalism, Alito refuses to emote. In a culture that celebrates the rebel, or the fashionable pseudorebel, Alito respects tradition, order and authority. 
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