Courtesy of Blogometer, it seems that some on the right think that we are "losing traction on Alito." That's the argument being put forward by the rightist Catholic group Fidelis and the equally rightist Committee for Justice in a recent memo. (The memo's dated December 29, but Joe Cella of Fidelis just posted it to Red State yesterday. Apparently, Fidelis is losing traction on memos.)

They cite as their proof two things. One, the Alliance for Justice's Rolling Justice Tour was not a huge success. And two, they cite the Washington Post polling from mid-December that found 54% support for Alito's confirmation, with 28% opposed and 19% having no opinion. On the first point, I'm not too sure the success or failure of the Rolling Justice Tour is a good measure of progressive success in opposing Alito. And on the second, I'd have to point to another recent poll from the Wall Street Journal. That poll found 34% in favor of, 31% opposed to, 34% unsure about Alito's confirmation -- an even split all around.

The Journal poll did find some serious opposition to Alito on one front though. A hefty 69% would oppose Alito's confirmation if he "would vote to make abortions illegal." That actually mirrors the findings of the Post poll, in which 61% said they would want Alito to uphold Roe v Wade.

Now, being a conservative Catholic organization, Fidelis touts themselves as "principally focused on protecting the right to life." Clearly they support Alito because they think he's anti-choice. But if that's true, then a majority of Americans doesn't support him. So I'm not quite sure how they can claim that the polling on Alito works in their favor.

But the most important point here is that, until the confirmation hearings begin and Alito starts answering questions, the polling on his confirmation -- positive or negative -- doesn't really mean all that much. And an attempt to read into the relative success of the Rolling Justice Tour a trend on public opinion of Alito is downright hilarious.