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"It was outsiders like Ralph Neas and Nan Aron who were pushing Kennedy and Leahy and Reid on the Vanguard ruling, and pressing them to go around the us," says a Democratic staffer on the Judiciary Committee. "We had the Vanguard material, we were putting it together on the briefing materials, but Kennedy and others asked outsiders for help."

Aron, who heads the left-wing legal extremist group, Alliance for Justice, and Neas, who head People for the American Way, have both been out front on the Alito fight. In that past, both of their organizations have worked closely with Kennedy and Leahy staff in judicial fights. Leahy, in fact, regularly used outside researchers and non-Senate staff to prepare get briefing materials.

The Vanguard ruling is a comparatively minor case that Democrats are now desperately attempting to make into a big deal. Judge Alito, during a prior confirmation hearing, had promised to recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard companies, because he had a mutual fund account with them. He ended up involved in a case, but had sought clearance and guidance in doing so. There is no evidence that Alito did anything unethical.

Republicans and even some Democrats are upset at Kennedy and Leahy, because they went directly to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals for information, instead of going, as is the usual request process, through the Judiciary Committee. Almost all of the information Kennedy and Leahy have used has come from Aron's and Neas's organizations, which are using outside researchers, some of whom worked for the DNC and MoveOn.org during the last election cycle, as well as private investigators, to dig up information about Alito.

Already, the DNC has been caught up in the smear campaign against Alito. Last week, the DNC was caught red-handed in a ham-fisted attempt to leak a policy document that claimed Alito was soft on organized crime cases.

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