The Post analyzes the Alito battle

The Alito debriefing has begun. The Washington Post looks at how the battle unfolded -- and how the GOP won. No question, the GOP operatives were more strategic. And, they work in unison. The White House, the operatives, the Senate and their groups come up with the plan and make it happen. There's nothing new in that statement. The tragedy is that our side hasn't figured out how to do it. Read the Post piece, but be forewarned, it will make your blood boil:

For three intense months, hundreds of advocacy groups on both sides of the battle aggressively competed to shape public opinion, spending more than $2 million in advertising and blanketing the country with millions of e-mails saying why the man who would replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was important. But in the end, Senate Democrats and their allies never succeeded in convincing Americans that Alito was the threat to their rights that critics said he was.

In a sense, the outcome of Tuesday's 58 to 42 vote confirming Alito was ordained by the results of the 2004 presidential race, the mandate President Bush received for his conservative agenda, and Republican control of the Senate. "Elections matter," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). But interviews with senators, congressional staff members, advocacy groups and White House aides over the course of the process suggest that the result was equally affected by the division and disorganization of Senate Democrats, who were outmaneuvered at virtually every turn, victims of the same strategies they used in 1987 to defeat the nomination of Robert H. Bork.

There are ample examples throughout the article of failed leadership and failed strategy on the Democratic side. What's most frustrating is that we knew this battle was coming for years. And, yes, elections matter. But so does the ability to launch a strategic, integrated, serious campaign. What's also probably true is that there will be no debrief on our side. No one ever tries to figure out what we can learn from our mistakes -- so we make the same mistakes over and over and over.