"Could you imagine next GWB picks his personal CPA to be Fed Chairman?"
Chris, that's a darn good analogy.
Interesting historical facts:
Salmon P. Chase - resigned from Lincoln's cabinet after disagreements with the President. Lincoln then made him CJUSSC, and he swore Lincoln in for his second term.
Teddy Roosevelt offered WH Taft either the Republican party nomination or the CJUSSC. Taft, at his wife's insistence, took the White House. After his solo term in office, WG Harding eventually gave him the CJUSSC post as well.
Earl Warren's soldiering as a loyal Republican, both as Dewey's VP nominee and Governor of California, earned him Eisenhower's nomination as CJUSSC.
I'm sure BOTH sides can find ammo in the above, being just a few of the USSC nominations that could have "smacked of cronyism". But just so you don't think it's "unprecedented".
I think Bush honestly felt it would make his base feel better that he accomplished both of his goals:
1) Nominate someone who he KNEW PERSONALLY would be an originalist
and
2) would be confirmable.
I would be willing to bet that he is stunned, after going to the mat for YEARS on behalf of people like Owens, Pryor, Brown, Estrada, etc. that the base would question his committment to picking originalist judges. I still contend that he had been told, after they let Roberts off easy, that it would be nigh impossible for him to get a true conservative through on the next nomination. I think he thought he would be congratulated by his supporters for putting an originalist on the court that they couldn't use a paper trail on to reject this nominee.
I think the White House is in disarray by all of this because they are stunned that they aren't "trusted" by the base on this one after the numbers of nominees that they have stuck with to the bitter end. All you have to do is look at the way the BJ Clinton unceremoniously dumped Hillary's good buddy Lani Guinier to see the difference between sticking with your people with conviction, and running when "the going gets tough."
I think Bush thinks he had a person who he knew to be a solid originalist. I don't think he felt he was "betraying" the movement. I believe he felt he was fulfilling his campaign promise.
For what it's worth...
If she is an originalist, where is the proof of this?
Miers is not an originalist judge nominee. Why have a 55/44 majority in the senate if not to offer up nominees that have a background in constitutional law? "Trust me" on a blank check? "Trust me" because "I know her heart"?
Even to the layman, Ms. Miers is unqualified for SCOTUS.