''I do think it's winnable. I think that the more Americans know about Alito's record, they will be extremely fearful of his confirmation," says Nan Aron, president of the Alliance For Justice, an association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women's, children's, and consumer advocacy organizations.
''These are very different circumstances" from John Roberts's nomination as chief justice, says Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
Ralph Neas, president of People For the American Way, adds, ''We welcome the opportunity to clarify the differences between the right wing . . . and the overwhelming majority of the American people."
With two months before an expected vote on Alito, the groups are deploying organizers to key states and raising money for a television campaign. There is no minimizing the magnitude of the task: Republicans hold 55 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and Progress for America, an organization with close ties to the White House, is waging a strong campaign on behalf of Alito.
Add to that the recent show of political muscle by conservative groups who forced Harriet E. Miers to withdraw her nomination and now back Alito. When it comes to the courts, Aron, Henderson, Neas, and their allies have no comparable trophy after a year in which they all have differed with the Democratic leadership.
If their chief goal is to prevent a sharp conservative shift on the courts, it's not yet clear how far Senate Democrats will fight Alito, knowing that Bush would probably follow up with another, possibly more conservative, replacement. Party leaders have shown more eagerness in confronting Bush when it has been compatible with their overriding objective of gaining seats in the 2006 elections.
Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader and a Democrat of Nevada, and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee, underscored their political objectives recently to Henderson and other representatives of groups opposed to Alito's nomination.
