A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

To those heavily engaged in the political process, it should come as little to no surprise that the Alito nomination should be viewed as important and consequential in the political world. But unless one is completely caught up in the game of inside baseball, one learns that not everyone shares the sense of activist urgency:

Until Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) gaveled the confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to order yesterday, the battle over Alito's nomination had been a shouting match between partisans. Whether it ever engages the public now depends on the effectiveness of Alito and his Democratic interrogators.

To the advocates on both sides, the battle is described in drastic terms. "Judge," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), "this may be one of the most significant or consequential nominations that the Senate will vote on since I've been here in the last three decades."

Earlier in the day, an e-mail fundraising appeal went out from a prominent conservative under the heading "The nomination of Judge Samuel Alito is in serious trouble" -- though few believe that is the case.

The opening day of hearings signaled that Alito faces a far more adversarial process in winning a seat on the Supreme Court than did Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. On such issues as abortion, privacy, warrantless eavesdropping and the power of the presidency, the confluence of current events and Alito's record has given Democrats much to contest. Alito also faces greater scrutiny because he would replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the court's key swing voter.

But on this nomination, as with Roberts's, there has been a clear disconnect between the zeal of activists and the detachment of the general public. Tim Hibbits, an Oregon-based pollster, said the Alito nomination falls low on the public's list of priorities. "With the exception of highly energized base voters, it's not something that's engaged people," he said.

That could change, depending on how Alito conducts himself when the questioning begins today. But it is also possible that low-voltage confirmation hearings are becoming the norm, not the exception, despite the investment of activists to turn them into surrogate presidential campaigns. Former President Bill Clinton won overwhelming confirmation votes on his two nominees, and Roberts won 78 votes last fall when he was confirmed.

Because of the implications of President Bush's clear desire to move the court in a more conservative direction, many activists have predicted a clash this year akin to those that occurred over the nominations of Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas -- Bork's heavily freighted in ideology and Thomas's overwhelmed by accusations of sexual harassment.

It has not happened. One reason may be because the public considers these nominees differently than do the ideologues or both sides, looking at experience and demeanor more than at ideology. Or it may be because Alito's nomination has been overshadowed by more compelling issues, such as Iraq, the cost of home heating oil and natural gas or lobbyist Jack Abramoff's plea bargain. Whatever the reason, the public has been slow to engage.

In many ways, this is a healthy development. Between the sense of urgency held by activists and the relative apathy of the public may potentially be found a middle ground that lends itself to some form of equanimity. That is to be applauded; there is no reason why the public at large cannot keep a cool head about even the most consequential of political developments.

At the same time, there exists the worry that any equanimity is the result of a profound and worrisome disconnect between the public and the world of policy, a disconnect which not only fails to bring about interesting and elevated discourse regarding public issues, but projects a deeper cynicism regarding the importance of such issues.

I suppose that times like these call for some form of survey to see whether interest in the Alito nomination is correlated with knowledge of the issues at stake. I strongly suspect that it is, but if the gap between those in the know and those who care on one hand, and those removed from the debate and relatively apathetic on the other is a wide one, then we will have a better grasp on whether the sanguine public reaction to the Alito nomination is one that reflects Zen-like calm, or one that reflects a need for deeper engagement.