Jeff Sessions’ heroic efforts notwithstanding, the Senate GOP made only a fitful, hesitant, somewhat fearful effort to really publicize the extent of Judge Sotomayor’s disqualifications. They never really fought against the meme that her own record on the court was in the broad mainstream (even if on the left side of it) — even though it is nothing of the sort. And they never even TRIED to turn the tables and put the so-called moderate Dems on the spot and make it a tougher vote for the Dems than for the GOP. They did not use every procedural arrow in their quiver to push a vote back into September in order to give the Dems a chance to hear from angry constituents on Sotomayor the same way they are hearing from angry constituents on health care. Without the month recess, also, there is too little time for the NRA’s “scoring” of a vote against Sotomayor as the right vote to really take effect. Yet despite all this, Soto’s approval ratings in the general public are pretty much 50-50 — extraordinarily low for a Supreme Court nominee before the vote. Imagine how much lower those polls would be if the GOP had gone all-out?

So while other conservatives seem satisfied with getting 31 votes against her, I count it as a much bigger opportunity missed. I actually think she was defeatable, and if not that, then the vote could have been close enough to really make liberals sweat and pay a price — and that defeating her or making the libs sweat would have been a victory that would have energized the conservative base not just with their current sense of protest, but with a more important sense that protests can actually be turned into political victories.

I am extremely disappointed. This fight is ending later today with a fizzle, not a pop. And it’s a big letdown, and another sign that the Senate GOP as a whole still doesn’t “get it.” Like amoebas at a yoga class, they have no spine.