This Will Be Interesting

Today's New York Times has an article about the upcoming confirmation hearings for General Michael Hayden as CIA director. The Times reports that Democrats see an opportunity.

Senate Democrats intend to use next week's confirmation hearings for a new CIA director to press the Bush administration on its broad surveillance programs, engaging Republicans on national security grounds that have proved politically treacherous for Democrats in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Here's where it becomes very, very tricky:

To date, however, Democrats have been careful to calibrate their public statements about the N.S.A.'s domestic eavesdropping and data-mining programs. Most have focused their criticisms on questions about the program's legal underpinnings and whether Congress was sufficiently consulted about it, with only a handful calling outright for an end to the efforts.

….

Other Republicans say Democrats still risk raising questions about their own national security priorities if they push too hard on the surveillance programs. "It could hurt them if they go too far," Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said about the Democrats.

Republicans were able to effectively turn national security issues against the Democrats in the 2002 and 2004 elections. A Congressional fight over the creation of the Department of Homeland Security contributed to Republican gains in the Senate in 2002, and Mr. Bush and Congressional Republicans portrayed themselves as stronger on terrorism in 2004.

The tricky part: Push too hard and look like you're against protecting Americans. Don't push hard enough and you are in serious trouble with your "netroots". I'll make a prediction here, the Democrats will be unable to restrain themselves and will come off these hearings looking bad. Their track record for never failing to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity is astonishing.

I'm sensing a set-up here.