The charade of loyal opposition during the Alito hearings hasn't escaped notice of several members of the progressive blogosphere (aka the "real netroots"). Part of the problem is that Beltway politicians don't read blogs.

On Salon, Peter Daou paints the hard-reality-based political landscape:

Last September, I published an essay laying out what I saw as the scope of blog influence, with 'influence' defined as the capacity to alter or create conventional wisdom. I used a triangle construct to set out the relationship between the netroots, the media, and the political establishment: "Looking at the political landscape, one proposition seems unambiguous: blog power on both the right and left is a function of the relationship of the netroots to the media and the political establishment. Forming a triangle of blogs, media, and the political establishment is an essential step ... Simply put, without the participation of the media and the political establishment, the netroots alone cannot generate the critical mass necessary to alter or create conventional wisdom."

I concluded that "if the netroots alone can’t change the political landscape without the participation of the media and Democratic establishment, then there’s no point wasting precious online space blasting away at Republicans while the other sides of the triangle stand idly by."

Can you guess what comes next?

A flurry of activity among bloggers, online activists, and advocacy groups is met with ponderously inept strategizing by the Democratic leadership and relentless - and insidious - repetition by the media of pro-GOP narratives and soundbites. It's slow-motion-car-wreck painful, and most certainly NOT where the left's triangle should be a half decade into the new millennium, as the Bush-propping machine hums and whirrs, poll numbers rise and fall, Iraq bleeds, scandal dissolves into scandal, terror speech blends into terror speech. The landscape is there for everyone to see, to analyze.

So that's the frustration with the right wing's success at pressuring the media to treat their dogma as facts and to treat facts as "liberal bias." But there's more:

Which brings me to the Alito hearings, a perfect instance for the left's triangle to change conventional wisdom, to shape public opinion. But rather than a Democratic triumph, the Alito hearings have thrown the dichotomy between the netroots and the Democratic leadership into even starker relief, illustrating the profound dysfunction of the left’s triangle.

And then...

[P]rogressive bloggers and online activists - positioned on the front lines of a cold civil war - face a thankless and daunting task: battle the Bush administration and its legions of online and offline apologists, battle the so-called “liberal� media and its tireless weaving of pro-GOP narratives, battle the ineffectual Democratic leadership, and battle the demoralization and frustration that comes with a long, steep uphill struggle.

What are the implications?

Unfortunately for the progressive netroots, the intricate interplay of Republican persuasion tactics, media story-telling, and 21st century information flow seems beyond the ken of most Democratic strategists and leaders. The hellish reality progressive bloggers have acknowledged and internalized is still alien to the party establishment. Dem strategy is still two parts hackneyed sloganeering and one part befuddlement over the stifling of their message.

That's all very interesting. However, I think Peter Daou misses another pernicious problem that undercuts the "netroots'" effectiveness in affecting and influencing Democratic Party policies and tactics: The "progressive netroots" as a unified influential force on politics is an illustion.

There are "progressive" bloggers who are actively working to undercut and undermine real progressive netroots activists, citizens and (most importantly) voters.

On the front page of Daily Kos, Armando cites a New York Times editorial that states it plain:

The single most important thing a senator can do to support abortion rights is to vote against Supreme Court nominees who would take such rights away. Given Judge Alito's record and his testimony, it is hard to see how Senators Specter, Chafee, Snowe and Collins - or any other pro-choice senators - can call themselves strong advocates of abortion rights if they support him.

That's a fair point. Armando uses it to focus in on the Republicans:

This holds for Dem Senators who claim to be pro-choice as well. We'll see how they vote. But one Republican Senator who claims to be pro-choice has already demonstrated that there really are no pro-choice Republicans....

Yet what about the Democrats who do the same? Where is the outrage at the Democrats who will roll over (and you know there will be many)? Ben Nelson has already declared his fealty to the right-wing icon. Where's the call for Democratic unity on this?

Amando's ongoing spirited opposition of Alito comes on the very selfsame site that has vigorously advocated for: Bob Casey, Jr., who is against a woman's right to her own body. Same for Tim Kaine, Tim Dunn, Eric Massa, Tim Ryan, Dan Boren, Charlie Melancon, Robert Cramer, Mike Ross, John Salazar, Joe Baca, Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa, Sanford Bishop, Ben Chandler, Charlie Melancon, Wm. Lacy Clay, Collin Peterson, Gene Taylor, Dan Boren, John Murtha (!), Lincoln Davis, Henry Cuellar, Jim Matheson, Nick Rahall -- all card-carrying opponents of women's rights over their own bodies.

And it's not just Markos who's endorsing anti-choice Democrats. Even ActBlue gets into the act.

If defending a woman's right to her own body is so important to the biggest "progressive" blog in the world, then why do they push so hard for anti-choice candidates, while attacking defenders of women's reproductive rights as "single-issue voters" who "demand ideological purity" to conform to our "litmus test"?

What about this so-called "progressive netroots'" own litmus test: Democratic candidates who oppose women's rights and consider women's bodies property of the State?

I think what Peter Daou needs to realize is that the Democratic Party's apparent apathy towards -- or, at best, inept opposition of -- women's rights opponent Samuel Alito is abetted by the right-wing ana-progressive "netroots" push for candidates who are over on the right with Ben Nelson and rank no better when it comes to women's rights over their own bodies.

And the real question is whether the Democratic Party can thrive, or even survive, while it continues to alienate its progressive base while it chases the dream of being the kinder, gentler owner of women's wombs.

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