Let me put it like this:
Name a single bad nomination that Bush has ever made for anything. The only possible name I can come up with is Norman Mineta. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Estrada, Brown, Roberts, Ashcroft, the list goes on. Most of the names on every FReeper's short list for this nomination was one of Bush's own picks for the Circuit Courts.
Sorry, I don't buy the out-of-the-box arguement that Miers sucks.
Miers is perfect. The President knows her! It's genius. She is far more conservative than any of the others, with a proven, documented track record that does not need to be questioned or debated.
"Name a single bad nomination that Bush has ever made for anything"
how about AG Gonzales the guy who said "securing the border is VERY COMPLEX issue."
Uh, he's not perfect. O'Neill. Meyers. Whitman.
Garner as first Iraq "controller".
We have been pretty happy with a vast majority of his judicial picks (many of whom were screened by this same Harriet Miers). If nothing else, I think she is keenly aware what the words Judicial Restraint, Original Intent, and Strict Constructionist mean, she's been asking all the judges about their philosophies.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bush didn't talk to his previous court picks to see what they thought about Miers. I would at least like to think that if they had all said she was a bad choice, he would have listened.
And, if Roberts turns out well, I think the entire circumstance of the court would be such that it would tend to pull weaker justices to the right, like they used to go left. Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas are more than a match for Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter. I wouldn't be surprised to see Kennedy come back a little toward the light -- IF Roberts is a good pick.
If Roberts is an Anakin, we are in big trouble, because he is really smart, and very smooth,and I believe will have a great influence on the other justices.
I guess I just don't see why, before we have the questioning of the senate, we should presume that Bush doesn't know this nominee, and in fact didn't pick her precisely because, of all the nominees he talked to, she was the one LEAST LIKELY to become a Souter.