As the White House team watched the final votes come in putting Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court, one of the biggest smiles in the room belonged to the new justice himself. But standing with him, as he had throughout the confirmation process, Dan Coats smiled just as broadly.

"This was a straining, draining three-month process that sapped every ounce of your energy," the former Indiana senator recalls. "When that vote came in and certified it, it was one of the greatest senses of relief and emotion and elation that I've ever experienced."

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A Supreme Court confirmation has become one of the hottest political fights in Washington, requiring a campaign-style approach in order to win Senate approval. That reality has spurred in the modern era a new role, that of the so-called "sherpa" who acts as the campaign manager, spokesperson, strategist and personal aide.

"You need a coordinated effort on any nomination, but especially a Supreme Court nomination," said Ken Duberstein, who guided three different candidates through the process. The existing White House staff already has so much on its plate, he adds, which is why it's become standard operating procedure to bring someone from the outside.

But the decision by the White House not to call on such a "gray beard" has added yet another ripple to President Obama's historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. It has tasked Stephanie Cutter, who spearheaded Democratic opposition to President Bush's nominees, with a lead role in the effort. But the traditional sherpa duties have now been divided among other White House aides, including Ron Klain, chief of staff to the Vice President and a former Judiciary Committee aide. The administration is also having Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) serve as the chief escort for the "courtesy calls" Sotomayor will soon hold with other members of the Senate.

"The absence of a certain colored beard I don't think denotes a casualness about which we're going the confirmation process," press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday when asked why it opted not to designate a traditional sherpa.

Indeed, the sherpa is constantly coordinating with White House personnel from the legislative affairs, legal affairs, general counsel and public liaison offices, among others. At this point, the confirmation team is focused on sticking to its rollout message, while beginning to schedule meetings in the Senate and a regimen of briefings for the nominee. Because the nomination fight has become so highly charged, the nominee often needs a crash course in politics, even though the Senate may have confirmed him or her once before.

"The nominee needs to understand that she is preparing for an overt political event, without many rules and with few express assurances of due process, that is unlike anything that occurs in a court of law," said A.B. Culvahouse, who as President Reagan's White House counsel in the late 1980s worked on the nomination of Robert Bork, and eventually Anthony Kennedy.

And beyond Politics 101, a sherpa needs to be a personal confidant in helping deal with what Coats called the culture shock of a Supreme Court nomination.

"The political intensity in Washington is not something that judges in their quiet chambers are prepared for," he said. Alito went from the anonymous life of an appellate judge to seeing his picture on the front page of every newspaper, quipping at one point to Coats: "They didn't even want to take my picture at the family reunion. Now everyone wants one."

After the nomination announcement, the Senate courtesy calls are the next major public foray for the nominee. These are more than just photo ops, advisers say.

"You don't necessarily get a sense of support or opposition, but you certainly find out where the trouble spots are, the things that the senators think, which helps you prepare for that confirmation hearing," Duberstein said.

"I think it's also very helpful for the senators to have the opportunity for more than just their 15 minutes of questioning with all the cameras on and so forth [at a confirmation hearing]," Coats said. "It's an entirely different atmosphere in the office, with a closed door."

It was in these meetings that the White House learned that Harriet Miers' nomination was in serious trouble, as Sen. Arlen Specter, then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned that even the Republicans "are going to have probing questions." If all goes according to plan, however, the confirmation team can proceed to preparations for public questioning.

So-called "murderboards" are conducted, where Constitutional law experts and White House staff participate in mock hearings to test the nominee's mettle. "The harder the questions and the harder the murderboards, ... usually the easier the hearings," Duberstein said.

And just as important as the content of the answers, the sherpa and other advisers also coach the nominee on demeanor. Tom Korologos, Robert Bork's sherpa, wrote in the Washington Post last weekend that his performance failed in part because he "had broken the 80-20 rule we had drilled him on," to make sure the senators spoke 80 percent of the time and he answered 20 percent of the time. "We were at a 50-50 face-off and losing ground," he wrote.

Despite some doubts raised about Sotomayor's intellectual heft, and the focus by some conservatives on some of her past statements, the Obama team has been given high marks so far for the rollout. Given how these nomination battles have become drawn out, averaging about at least 70 days, there's a long road still ahead. But the road to confirmation can still be smooth if they minimize any further unwelcome revelations, Duberstein said.

"The job of the White House staff is no surprises, and so you have to know everything -- or think you know everything as you enter this," he said. "But unless they had a high degree of confidence, I'm sure President Obama would not have gone public with her nomination."

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