One of the more bizarre spectacles in recent days has been the phenomenon of conservative commentators "defending" Sam Alito against liberals' outlandish "distortions" of his record designed to make people think Alito is hostile to abortion rights (today's Charles Krauthammer column, for example). The trouble here is that liberals aren't accusing Alito of being a child molester or something; we're accusing Alito of supporting long-held conservative goals for the judiciary. Krauthammer is on record as deploring Roe v. Wade and calling for it to be overturned. If he believed that Alito was really innocent of the charges against him, he'd be against Alito.
This touches on something I've been talking about here in the past couple days: The way in which conservatives have been campaigning by playing down their conservativism. I suppose you could say the same about some liberals.
Wouldn't it be great if people could just say, this is what I believe, and this is why, and didn't feel they had to tailor their comments for whatever audience?
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