On the assumption that the “American public” is going to pay very close and careful attention to the John G. Roberts confirmation battle, the National Review‘s Ed Whelan potentially has a point. The Democrats may well be making a tactical mistake by neither waging total war over Roberts nor confirming him quickly and easily—the latter strategy in order to make themselves seem reasonable and set themselves up for total war over the next nominee. Whelan’s analysis sounds very clever; it’s just too bad that his underlying assumption is, in all likelihood, totally false.