Democrats, who were already planning to press Judge Roberts on civil rights, are likely to be even more aggressive on that front, citing the racial divisions exposed by the hurricane. But they must be careful not to push too hard, some political analysts say, because the suffering on the Gulf Coast has left the public with little appetite for a partisan slugfest.
A survey last week by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 71 percent of Americans were paying attention to stories about gasoline prices and 70 percent to the hurricane, but only 18 percent to the Roberts nomination. So it will be all the more difficult for senators intent on using the hearings to reshape their public personas.
The members of the committee are not an especially diverse group; all are white, all but four are lawyers, and only one is a woman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. Some, like Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Senator John Cornyn, the freshman Republican from Texas, are trying to carve out national identities. Others, like Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware; Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin; and Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, have White House ambitions.
Beyond the senators and their parties, the hearings offer the entire Senate an opportunity for a political makeover. After senators have spent years of bickering over President Bush's judicial nominees, the Senate's image is badly in need of repair, Mr. Graham said.
His wish for the hearings was simple: "I just hope we don't break down into a partisan food fight."
NY Times, In Roberts Hearing Today, Spotlight Falls on Senators, Too
BARTLET
...I don't think Americans are tired of partisan politics; I think they're tired of hearing career politicians diss partisan politics to get a gig. I've tried it before, they ain't buying it. That's okay, though. That's okay, though, 'cause partisan politics is good. Partisan politics is what the founders had in mind. It guarantees that the minority opinion is heard, and as a lifelong possessor of minority opinions, I appreciate it.
Aaron Sorkin and Paul Redford, The West Wing, "Game On."
ETA: Bob Geiger reminds us of a few other reasons we shouldn't listen to Republicans like Graham who diss partisan politics:
Republicans...would love to have us forget that it was they who stooped to record lows to keep Bill Clinton from getting elected in 1992 and, when they didn't succeed at that, they spent the following eight years making his life a political hell.
This is the same Republican party that smeared the patriotism of Max Cleland, a triple-amputee, Vietnam Veteran so they could get Chickenhawk Supreme Saxby Chambliss elected in his place. [The] party also spread a litany of lies about Al Gore in 2000, disenfranchised 50 million people who voted for Gore and stole that presidential election.
It was also this Republican party that funded the Swift Boat Liars who went after highly-decorated Veteran John Kerry in 2004, who lied to take our nation to war in Iraq and who have been systematically covering up Karl Rove's outing of a covert CIA agent. Now, we are just beginning to figure out how many people have needlessly died in Louisiana and Mississippi because...neoconservative[s] successfully cut funding to repair levees in favor of further tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Until Air America came on last year, the Republican party had been able to mercilessly dominate the national dialog via the radio airwaves – not to mention having their own news network in Fox News -- and even provided a White House press pass to a right-wing, prostitute from a non-existent news service to throw softball questions at Scott McClellan.
How long is it going to take before our democratic "leaders" wake up and hear us screaming and rattling at the bars of their cage? For gods sake, STAND UP AND FIGHT!
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