TV ADS AIM TO INFLUENCE VOTE ON ALITO

Democratic senators from six red states returned home over the
weekend for the Thanksgiving recess to confront television ads
connecting critics of Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme
Court with left-wing special interests. A simultaneous message
intended ultimately to reach 10 million Americans made this same point.

The counterattack on Alito's behalf was triggered by the new TV
advertisement of the liberal coalition opposing Alito's confirmation
by the Senate. The ad claimed Alito, as a federal appellate judge,
"even voted to approve the strip search of a 10-year-old girl."
This distorts a case where a suspected drug dealer's daughter was
searched, visibly not manually, by a female police officer in the
presence of the child's mother. Alito's defenders make the
legitimate argument that the assault against him ends up as
a defense of drug dealers.

Red-state Democratic senators, especially those up for re-election
next year, face a dilemma in deciding how to vote on confirmation.
The liberal pressure groups orchestrating the attack on Alito are
central to the political health of the Democratic Party. But
identification with them could be fatal in closely contested Senate races.

Alito clearly would mean a shift to the right when compared with the
justice he would replace, Sandra Day O'Connor. Soft-spoken, modest
and from an immigrant family, Alito lacked obvious flaws. Just as in
an election campaign, the opposition research experts dug for dirt
about the nominee.

They thought they hit pay dirt in Doe v. Groody, a 2004 case. But
Alito's dissent on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals merely
affirmed the right of Pennsylvania police to exceed the scope of a
warrant to search all the occupants of a home to prevent "the
removal, concealment or destruction" of drugs. While avowing "a
visceral dislike" for searching the young, he called it "a sad fact
that drug dealers sometimes use children to carry out their business
and to avoid prosecution."

Alito's opinion would not seem to justify rejecting a Supreme Court
nominee, and his defenders want to turn the debate to the nature of
the opposition. Sponsoring the strip-search ad were People for the
American Way, the Alliance for Justice, and the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights. The conservative Committee for Justice's
TV ad contends that "liberal groups led by People for the American
Way" oppose Alito to "take God out of the Pledge Allegiance" and
"redefine traditional marriage."

This pro-Alito ad has begun playing in Arkansas, Colorado, Montana,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia. Identifying
opposition to Alito with left-wing special interests is particularly
unwelcome by Democratic senators up for re-election next year: Ben
Nelson (Neb.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Robert Byrd (W.Va.). It might
also trouble freshman Sen. Ken Salazar, who was elected in Colorado
last year while promising not to filibuster judges, but who now says
he has serious concerns with Alito.

At the same time that the TV ad appeared, the conservative Judicial
Confirmation Network last Thursday sent a memo to 1,500 local and
state political leaders belonging to 70 organizations. They are
capable of distributing it via e-mail to 10 million people.
The memo continued the assault on sponsorship of the strip-search
ad by "a coalition of far-left groups led by People for the American
Way and Alliance for Justice."

While revealing the true nature of Doe v. Groody, the memo says that
"the liberals contend that children cannot be searched under the
Constitution. This would amount to a 'get out of jail free' card for
drug dealers who use young children to stash drugs." The Law
Enforcement Alliance of America last week declared that "these
shameless attacks on law enforcement officers and Judge Alito would
have young children used as drug mules."

Red-state Democratic senators have to consider consequences of
collaboration by their leaders with architects of the assault on
Alito. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid met Thursday with Wade
Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a sponsor of
the strip-search ad, to plot strategy against Alito that may not be
popular with all members of Reid's caucus.