For as long as any of us can remember, Democrats have been unable to drive wedge issues effectively because we have been too busy forming circular firing squads. Even when Bill Clinton supported welfare reform and similar issues, he was out to neutralize traditional Republican wedges ("wedgies?"), and not exploit cracks in the Republican coalition through wise political posturing.
But my friends, we sit here together at the dawn of a new opportunity. Movement conservatives of both varieties (corporatist profiteers and wingnut theocrats) are wailing and gnashing their teeth over this SCOTUS nomination. We Democrats need to learn - fast - how to do something we have never been good at.
More on the flip.
There's been a lot of talk about taking an aggressive stance against Miers, including the filibuster, and getting started on that right away. That may be satisfying, in the abstract, to certain activists, but it's not smart politics. Earnest table thumping is not the hallmark of good wedge politics unless you are banging the table over some straw man side issue designed to set your opponent up for failure (damned if they support you, damned if they oppose you). All the talk we've done about framing in the last year has dealt with these issues in some sense, but frames don't work unless they exploit real wedges in coalitions, and we have not been nearly as good about studying and defining the weaknesses in the opposing coalition as they have been good at studying our. Hell, we put our on display daily.
Lesson number one about driving wedge politics is that the issues you pick are cleverly coded. You don't come right out with your full argument or position. "Welfare reform" was originally a wedge to divide people based on racism, and it worked. It helped peel white working class men from our coalition.
Corporatist conservatives are elitists who believe in credentials. They are offended by Meirs because she is a third rate legal talent. She's not qualified, and she's an obvious crony pick. They would not care that she is a crony except that she's clearly not qualified. They are offended by the politics (the optics) of cronyism more than by the substance of it.
Cultural conservatives are offended because she seems like a timid pick whose conservative credentials they have to take on faith. They wanted to provoke a fight and hear the lamentations of us weak kneed libruls. Now they get this? They are also offended by the politics - the optics - of the unqualified crony, but to them that issue is secondary. If Bush had a cousin who was an open "originalist" jurist they would support him to the hilt.
Richard Viguery is in revolt. Dobson is staying on the reservation, for now. The right wing blogosphere is in revolt. There is real trouble on the other side. For once, they are the ones forming circular firing squads. Let's take a page from their book of smart politics for once and stay out of the way while they implode. Taking an aggressive anti-Meirs stance right now will just unify them. Nothing like a common enemy to bring them back together.
But, the passive approach is not enough to drive the wedge. We should smile, use the hearings as Georgia10 has suggested, and finally stand together to oppose her (without banging the table) on the basis that she is unqualified. If we play this right, she will fail with bipartisan objections. And we tie her to the Republicans through the theme of cronyism, incompetence and the whiff of insiderist corruption (I can't wait to get to questions about her role as a TANG fixer-upper). If they pass her on their own, their coalition is bruised and fractured for 2006 and 2008. If they defeat her with our help, the same result ensues, and Bush is badly weakened, even totally neutered.
A little "gentlemanly" restraint on this one - at least as a public posture - can go a long way to blowing apart the other side's entire coalition. Already Roy Moore has announced for governor. There will be cultural conservative challengers in primaries all across the country. Let's not be hapless for once and let the other side screw itself over.