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player ready...With Clarence Thomas now a member of the Supreme Court, Democrats are once again hunkered down, assessing the wreckage, wondering what went wrong.
Somewhere between the moment Anita Hill came forward with her charges of sexual harassment and the close of the Senate Judiciary Committee`s business in the wee hours of last Monday morning, Democrats lost control of the confirmation process.
Worse for Democrats, they lost control of the issues, the manipulation of symbols surrounding race and gender, and, ultimately, the national debate.
Surveying the collateral damage from dramatic public events is hardly a novel experience for Democrats. It happened after the Iran-contra hearings in the mid-1980s; it happened after the vote on the use of force in the Persian Gulf earlier this year; it happened during five of the last six presidential elections.
For want of a sense of direction or a sure-footed political instinct, Democrats appear capable of turning every situation into a no-win situation.
This weekend, Democratic Party despair runs deep, and questions abound. In the immortal query raised by Casey Stengel of his hapless 1962 New York Mets: ”Can`t anybody here play this game?”
The Thomas hearing provided hits and runs for the Republicans, and nothing but errors for Democrats. At every level, in public-opinion polls and among traditional party constituencies, Democrats took the fall.
”Republicans fight harder, smarter and dirtier than we do on these issues,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.
”In the Thomas hearing, there was no one managing the political aspect of the argument for the Democrats. All the energy on that side was tied up in this notion of it being a fact-finding mission. Republicans saw the hearing as a political campaign, and they fought it that way.”
The aftermath of the Thomas vote has offered little political comfort to Democrats, either.
Bush has hovered above the fray, bemoaning the public airing of Hill`s lurid charges and planning a presidential re-election campaign hinged on attacking a corrupt and bumbling Congress.
Meanwhile, Democrats like Virginia Sen. Charles Robb (who serves as chairman of the party`s Senate re-election campaign) and Illinois Sen. Alan Dixon are being targeted by feminist groups for having backed Bush`s nominee. Robb faced not only irate pickets but the defection of a Virginia-based direct-mail operation under contract to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Robb`s ”yes” vote, said the head of the direct-mail outfit, made their task untenable, and the contract was terminated.
Just about every political calculation in this affair went bust for the Democrats. Many believed the issue of sexual harassment would resonate with voters, but the focus after the vote was not so much on that issue as it was on the leaking of Hill`s confidential FBI report to the press.
As Thomas took the oath of office, two conservative activist groups in Washington were claiming that the bounty offered for the identity of the leaker (presumably a Democrat) is being fattened up by unsolicited
contributions.
The Democrats lost control of the symbols and watched in horror as questions of sexual harassment disappeared into a debate over race, over ”the high-tech lynching of uppity blacks” Thomas claimed was under way.
That remark, from a black public official who had long been contemptuous of minority talk of racial victimization, galvanized black support for Thomas. ”Nobody is more deft at playing racial politics than Republicans,” said Mark Mellman. ”What`s amazing is that they can play it both ways, on the attack with Willie Horton in 1988, or this way, propping up Thomas and putting the Democrats on the defensive.”
The Thomas affair demonstrated yet another another tactical shortcoming by the Democrats. As the hearings played out on national television, it was clear no one on the Democratic side gave any thought to the size of TV audiences.
Anita Hill testified on a Friday afternoon. The man she was accusing appeared in prime time Friday night, and most of Saturday.
Hill`s first panel of corroborating witnesses appeared in daylight hours, and by canceling her second panel, Hill`s supporters made sure the four women loyal to the nominee did their talking in prime time.
”They`re hopeless,” said a Democratic consultant who asked not to be identified. ”They must think it`s 1948 and all this stuff is held inside the committee room. They have no understanding of television.”
”You have to wonder if the Democrats understand modern campaign technology,” said Republican pollster Linda DiVall.
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DiVall noted that while Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) was the ranking minority member on the committee, he did little talking. The Republican side of the debate was carried in large measure by Sens. Orin Hatch of Utah, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Alan Simpson of Wyoming, effective advocates and gut-fighters all.
Democrats had the good sense to look past Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts as a leader, but turned the questioning over to Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Howell Heflin of Alabama, who dithered throughout, seemingly cowed by Thomas` refusal to respond directly to accusations of sexual misconduct.
For its part, the Democratic leadership in the Senate declined to frame the Thomas debate as a partisan issue. As they have done with other controversial votes, the leadership seemed almost to take pride in announcing that it would be a vote of conscience for Democrats.
Eleven Democrats, mostly Southerners from states with large black constituencies, voted for Thomas, and did so without fear of party reprisal, despite the narrow 52-48 victory by the nominee.
The defection of Dixon is emblematic of the Democratic approach. Dixon is the deputy whip, or No. 2 vote counter, among the body`s 57 Democrats.
If Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine is not inclined to lean on his deputy whip for a vote, he isn`t going to press any other reluctant senators.
”It`s evident they`re not as disciplined in mustering their forces to gain ground,” said Republican pollster DiVall. ”By Saturday in the hearing room, there was clearly Democratic uncertainty on how to proceed.”
That characterization of the Democrats could be expanded well beyond the Senate hearing room, and beyond the case of Clarence Thomas.