Two days ago, Fox News correspondent Brit Hume was asked, as pundits often are, to shoot from the hip on-air with his thoughts on the Supreme Court Alito hearings. What he said honestly made me sit up and take notice. Hume said the Alito hearings should be indicative of how media saavy Republican Party has become. When Robert Bork was asked in 1988 why he wanted to be on the Supreme Court, he responded that it would be an “intellectual feast”. He was torn apart in the media for sounding kraven and power-hungry. When Alito was asked the same question two days ago, his answer was clearly rehearsed and carefully worried as to be so banal it couldn’t possible offend ANYONE. This was not the most memorable moment so far of the Alito hearings - that award belongs to Sam Alito’s wife.

Last night Mrs. Alito’s tears made headline news. This was a moment Republican strategists salivate over. Now, I’m not saying that Mrs. Alito’s stressful tears weren’t genuine. It can’t be easy to watch your husband be grilled for 3 days straight. But make no mistake, as soon as the cable news networks started broadcasting as news, the semi-infamous SCOTUS “War Room” created in the White House was full of high fives.

What the site of a crying Mrs. Alito did is give every cable station the chance to roll footage of the Dems being..ahem…”meanies”. The Democrats now only have two options.

1) Spin this as a misunderstanding. Put a leash on Kennedy, Schumer, and Biden. Let someone like Russ Feingold be the spoke-person for the Dems at the hearings. Make it clear this isn’t about attacking Alito but ,since SCOTUS appointments are for life, these SHOULD be like the most difficult job interview you could ever imagine. Make this less about politics, and more about government.

or

2) Be the “meanies” the Republican accuse you of being. Be unrelentless. Become mad-dogs. If you’re going to insinuate that Alito isn’t fit for the job, go for it 100%. Buy airtime on every major network. Make some memorable attack ads. Dig up everything you can about the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Be ruthless in opposition to this candidate.

The truth is, we all know what will really happen. The Dems will fumble. They’ll insinuate he’s unfit for the job, but praise him at every given moment. They’ll continue this sheepish middleground, criticized by the left for not being aggressive enough and criticized on the right for being too mean. You’re not the centrist party. You’re not the opposition party. You’re the party of American liberalism. Start acting like it.