Informed Speculation

I just got off the line from another in a series of blogger conference calls with the great Ken Mehlman. Today’s topic, of course, was the Alito nomination.

As always, Patrick Ruffini gave the introduction for Mr. Mehlman, who stressed to open that Alito is the most experienced nominee in 70 years, first, and second, that the philosophy of Mr. Alito was consistent with the President’s wishes, and third, that we can expect a lot of offensive personal attacks and distortions of his record, mentioning Schumer by name. Mehlman said that he was also johned by Brian Johnson and Tracy Schmidt.

Erick-Woods Erickson started off, and expressed his delight with the nomination before asking what was in place in the interim between now and the hearings to combat the distortions and attacks by the Left. Mehlman stressed one strategy would be hammering home the fact that Alito has been unanimously confirmed twice, and that Ted Kennedy, for example, who has been on the attack today, voted for his confirmation in 1990.

Tim Chapman was next, followed by Doug? (didn’t catch the last name, sorry, if anyone cares to enlighten me in the comments, please do so), and both asked about the Gang of 14 deal, and what the strategy would be to ensure party discipline in the event that the constitutional/nuclear option was invoked. Mehlman mentioned that he hoped it would not come to a filibuster, but if it did, bloggers would provide one way of ensuring that the heat stayed on any recalcitrant Republicans, and that accountability was enforced. For now, said Mehlman, the focus is on spreading the word on the merits of Alito through both old and new media.

John Hawkins weighed in next, opining that with the excellent qualifications of Alito, there would be no possible reason to oppose him other than ideological ones, and asked what the consequences would be of an ideology-based filibuster. Mehlman reminded everyone that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the top lawyer at the ACLU and was confirmed with 96 votes, so ideology should not be a factor and such a filibuster would set a terrible precedent for future nominees of both parties.

Don Surber asked if the Miers nomination was a setup to rally conservatives around Alito. Mehlman vehemently denied this, and said that the problem Miers faced was that, as a nominee without an extensive written record, some of the only available writings were products of executive privilege. Rather than breach that wall, she preferred to serve the President in her current capacity.

Finally, Matt Margolis asked if the nomination of Alito, with his lengthy resume and impressive paper trail, meant that Bush had learned his lesson on sending up stealth nominees. Mehlman replied that he did not feel Miers was a stealth nominee, and said that this was a President committed to sending up judges who shared his philosophy regardless of vote expectations, using Pryor, Brown, and others as examples.

Yours truly chose not to ask a question today, as my question would also have been about the nuclear option, and I felt the ground had been covered. Besides, I got to ask a question the last two times, why be greedy, right?…

UPDATE 9:07 p.m.: Good roundup of conference call posts and reactions here from the Anchoress…

The Political Teen has a great clip here of Chris Matthews spitting on the Democratic talking points…

And don’t miss Ted Kennedy vs. Ted Kennedy at GOP.com…

Speaking of the GOP, here’s a great fundraising idea if you’re so thrilled by the Alito nomination that you’re ready to part with some hard-earned scratch…

Meanwhile, Ryan James notices a bit of selective memory from the Associated Press…

Here’s Don Surber’s comprehensive coverage of the call and various reactions…