Rove to Democrats: Roberts Nomination - Update on Strategy

Democrats,

After a few days, it's much easier to see the way things are turning out: George W. Bush has pulled a very strategic maneuver that has caught most people off-guard:

He nominated a Conservative that most everyone can like and respect.

This, by the way, is at once a gift (a good guy gets on the Supreme Court under Bush's watch) and a booby trap (Americans change their views of Republicans from Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to the "All-American" Roberts).

Now, if Roberts' persona would actually shift the focus of the Republican Party to one that resembled Roberts more than Rove, that would be one thing. More likely, the radical ideologues on the Right will effectively leverage this new lovable Republican Persona as a vehicle to draw more people in the party that they effectively hijacked 5 years ago.

As a result, any opposition move for or against Roberts is a tricky one, and this is exactly what Bush wants.

Here's the tough-love advice, Democrats: Make and portray the Democratic Party a party that someone like Roberts should belong to. Even though Roberts is a "Conservative," that does not mean that someone like Roberts (i.e., his persona) should not be a Democrat. The Democratic Party should be portrayed as a party that consists of "good people" with "good character" more than "people of a narrow set of liberal beliefs."

If you can embrace Roberts as a good guy who could possibly be a Democrat, you are strategically implying that Republicans are too radical and out-of-mainstream to keep him.

Does it matter what party Roberts is really a member of? No. Does it matter that Roberts might actually be too conservative to be a Democrat? No.

What matters is how you portray your party against Roberts' persona.

I've seen some liberal interest groups already beating up Roberts on cable talk shows. This is a dreadful mistake. This puts Democrats (sorry, but liberals = Democrats on talk shows) in a radical light, which is exactly where George W. Bush wants you to go.

If George W. Bush can make Liberals go nuts on Roberts, he has successfully made progress with his and Rove's "Permanent Republican Majority" initiative.

Democrats, you should embrace Roberts for his positive assets as a person, and as an American. You will upgrade the Democratic Party in Americans' minds, and simultaneously foil the Rove/Bush "Permanent Republican Majority" initiative.