HILLARY'S PLOY: Keep your eye out for Hillary's double strategy. On the one hand, she'll praise Roberts' qualifications, background, and temperament — even to the point of letting it be leaked that she'll probably vote to confirm the Supreme Court nominee. (Notice her recent statement that she intends to keep an open mind, suspend judgment, intended to distance her from Boxer and Mikulski.) On the other hand, watch Hillary end up voting against Roberts when the roll is called, doing so with little fanfare.

This two-pronged approach will allow her to spend the next six weeks making moderate-sounding remarks designed to endear her to swing voters who would otherwise distrust her hard-left background. Ultimately voting against Roberts will reassure Moveon.org Democrats whose money and trust she'll need in 2008. She's smart, she's shameless, and she's working hard to pick off a red state.