Paul Waldman explains why the GOP was its own worst enemy during the Sotomayor confirmation hearings:
For many years, progressives have admired the strategic and rhetorical unity conservatives always manage to achieve whenever a new debate emerges. The fact that Republicans and their allies seem to speak with one voice — making the same arguments, repeating the same talking points over and over — gives them a leg up whenever the two sides are trying to persuade the public. Democrats and their allies, in contrast, are more often a cacophonous jumble of competing and contradictory messages, shooting off in all directions.
This imbalance doesn’t completely determine the outcome of events — constantly repeating “personal accounts you control” wasn’t going to make the American people agree to privatize Social Security, for instance. But it certainly works to the right’s advantage. Or at least it does so long as the right’s message isn’t actively undermining its political goals. Which was exactly what we saw last week, making the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor a unique political moment. The Republicans were, as usual, robotically on message. And they’re going to regret it for a long time to come.
