The simple fact of the matter is that Bush turned out a record number of folks to vote for him in 2004 at least partially on his promise to restore sanity to the judiciary.
The simple fact of the matter is that the GOP controls the House and the Senate, based at least partially on the GOP's stance as the party in favor of restoring sanity to the judiciary.
The simple fact of the matter is that the GOP can win the bloodiest of Senate confirmation fights, even defeat a filibuster, if it would find its stones, cowboy up, and pull the trigger on the "constitutional option".
The simple fact of the matter is that Bush is at a low ebb both within his base and nationally because (and I recognize that this isn't entirely his fault) he has not been perceieved as having demonstrated strong leadership.
In spite of these facts, Bush has decided to look as though he is punting on this critically important SCOTUS pick, further depressing his base and looking weak to his enemies.
I see all the usual suspects are out in force on both sides of the "is she conservative or not" debate. But the simple fact of the matter is BOTH sides are having to speculate and employ educated gueswork in support of their positions. Conservatives should NOT have to guessing about whether the President's nominee is an originalist or not. We control the Senate. Bush should have been willing to have this debate and confirm a known quantity.
We are all being asked to simply take it on faith that Mier's is an originalist based on a handful of scripted remarks and a resume that happens to include a few "conservative" entries (in addition to gigs with the Lottery Commission). That's NOT good enough and the President should have known that.
He's also open to the cronyism charge on this, whether we like it or think its fair or not.
This was just a lame decision from both a political perspective and from a judicial perspective. What a shame.
The only plus I see is that there is plenty of room for a Republican presidential nomination candidate to run well to the right of Bush and reinvigorate the base, but that's years away.