MoveOn needs to get better at messaging. Their ability to raise money and put ads out there makes them relevant, but their actual kung-fu is a little weak.

Here's what I think it boils down to:

• He'll say anything to get a job: this is an important theme for framing the whole hearing process, but currently muddled in MoveOn's ad with the abortion bit. If there's a pivot from abortion it's:
• Privacy. This has the advantage of being the constitutional issue, and having broader general support than "abortion" in particular. It also has strong resonance with the NSA scandal. It's also a decent pivot to:
• Unchecked Presidential power. Why did Scalito get the nomination instead of any of the other fine conservative activists out there? Maybe because what Bush really wants is a justice who will swing the court to authorize his idea that the President is above the law.

Since the major cost here is airtime, not production, in the future it might be smart create a series of ads which share a common theme ("he plays one on TV" is ok, but not a home run) and address two or three points more directly. Not to provide more information, but to repeat the basic message more. People can find the facts online. On TV you want to repeat stuff that sticks, and then repeat it some more.

So if you were to do three ads, it might go:

1. He'll do anything to get a job. Lied on resume. Lied about recusing himself from cases involving Vanguard. Lied about his membership in CAP. He'll say whatever he thinks people want to hear in an interview to get the job.
2. He doesn't believe in a constitutional right to privacy. You can go to the point of saying his legal writing suggests women are the property of their husbands and fathers, but the essential legal point is whether or not a right to privacy exists. If this is what the debate is about, we win.
3. He believes in unchecked Presidential power. Bush is trying to pack the court so he can remain above the law.

Obviously as the hearings go on, the drama will shift and surge, but it's essential that these basic points be repeated by every advocacy group and political organization. Using literally the same language if possible, especially on TV.