I agree that we have no cards to play. However, I think the grumbling is serving an important purpose. In the end, she must be confirmed. It's the pitiful truth.
There's always the 'suicide bomber' card: conservatives sit out the next election and the results terrorize the GOP back into the fold. Maybe.
Novak released a bit today about Hastert and the House pubbies reversing their stance on spending for Katrina without cutting spending elsewhere. That's good. Whether it was due to this furor I can't say but it made me think.
The sad fact is that genuine conservatives don't hold much political power. Otherwise we quite frankly wouldn't have pseudo conservatives in the Senate (we'd have 55 people like Cornyn, Sessions, Brownback, Coburn instead) and we'd have a more conservative President.
Miers is a tough, bitter pill to swallow but it if conservatives really want to accomplish something, go after the Senators who hold her fate in their hands. Convince them that her nomination must be rejected for their own political health, and make THEM tell the President to nominate someone who's a much better candidate.
If all the anti-Miers efforts were directed at the Senate right now, instead of what I believe is pretty useless bashing of a lame duck President, then a better nominee could be in our future. I doubt very much that the President would replace Miers with someone that would cause a similar uproar from folks on the right. He'd know that he'd have no choice but deliver up what may turn out to be a big fat sacrificial lamb such as a Luttig just to appease those currently outraged, even if Luttig couldn't get confirmed either.