The Miers pick is the fulfillment of a promise made to the CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE portion of W's base.
The fallout, therefrom, cleves along spiritual, not intellectual lines.
Your input is a case in point.
Huh? When the entire conservative class of sophists that had supported the party dissents, it is that the intellectual base has cleaved from the party. Perhaps the spiritual base is supportive, but some of it also seems to be objecting.