You are totally misreading the situation, this is not an effort to support Harriet Miers, it is an effort by the New York Times to disqualify her because she is an Evangelical.
the news of the miers nomination was 'leaked' to the times last week...obviously by someone in the adminstration trying to see what the reaction to her would be.
And now the NY times has another 'exclusive' piece of information on Miers.
Something smells funny about it.