Advice that is not wanted….

Even though it is needed.

Wonder how long it will be before the usual crowd, starts questioning Peggy Noonan’s party affiliation again?

I have no valid reason not to like Sonia Sotomayor from the evidence at hand. Its only a hunch-from short exposure to her on TV. However I would be justifiably castigated if I were a Senator and stated that as my only reason to vote against her confirmation.

Nonetheless, Peggy Noonan rightfully points out that is what a group Republicans is going to do. And in the process blow a major opportunity:

Some, and they are idiots, look at Judge Sotomayor and say: attack, attack, kill. A conservative activist told the New York Times, “We need to brand her.” Another told me a fight is needed to excite the base.

Excite the base? How about excite a moderate, or interest an independent? How about gain the attention of people who aren’t already on your side?

The base is plenty excited already, as you know if you’ve ever read a comment thread on a conservative blog. Comment-thread conservatives, like their mirror-image warriors on the left (“Worst person in the woooorrrlllddd!”) are perpetually agitated, permanently enraged. They don’t need to be revved, they’re already revved. Newt Gingrich twitters that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. Does anyone believe that? He should rest his dancing thumbs, stop trying to position himself as the choice and voice of the base in 2012, and think.

Peggy Noonan notes that if they would just beat the shit out of ignore the Glenn Beck’s, the Limbaugh’s, the Hannity’s and all the rest-they might actually be able to make lemonade out of lemons:

The choice for Republicans isn’t between “attack” and “roll over.” It’s broader than that, and more interesting. There’s a new and fresh opportunity here for Republicans in the Senate to be serious, and, in their seriousness, to be seen and understood in a new light.

Serious opposition to Judge Sotomayor is not only fair, it’s necessary: It’s your job to oppose if you oppose. But it should be serious, not merely partisan. Mr. Obama himself well knows he voted against John Roberts and Sam Alito only in essence because they were conservative. He was planning a presidential run and playing to a left-wing base. But that didn’t enhance his reputation, did it? Not with anyone who wasn’t part of his base…………..

Republicans can be liberated by the fact that they’re outnumbered and likely about to lose. They can step back, breathe in, and use the Sotomayor confirmation hearings to perform a public service: Find out what the future justice thinks and why she thinks it, explain what they think and why they think it, look at the two different philosophies, if that’s what they are. Don’t make it sparring, make it thinking.

Don’t grill and grandstand, summon and inform. Show the respect that expresses equality and the equality that is an expression of respect. Ask and listen, get the logic, explain where you think it wrong. Fill the airwaves with thoughtful exchanges.

Obviously Ms. Noonan thinks they can do that. I don’t. Maybe twenty years ago they could have-not the crowd we have now. If for no other reason-no one dares to cross the fat blowhard
the “true believers” and get branded as a RINO. John Cole probably has it closer to correct that Peggy Noonan:

It seems like it is already out there and way too late. You’ve had Rush, Newt, Tancredo and others calling her a racist for days, you have all the groups that stand to do some serious moneymaking out there screaming radical activist (think Wendy Long and company), and the assorted right-wing magazines like Commentary and NRO and the Weekly Standard have already pretty much staked out a position on the lunatic fringe, and of course the WingNet has followed suit. How do you roll that back?

You can’t project an image when the messengers you use are not even grown ups themselves. Welcome to the 21’st Century……..where too many folks check their brains at the door and let other people do the thinking for them.