A source close to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in to me this morning to dispute the claim:
Today, James Dobson has suggested Karl Rove said that most of the women on the short list asked not to be considered. Karen Williams did no such thing. Her name was in the running up until Miers was selected. She did NOT withdraw her name.
And I used to think Rove was a political mastermind. You don't LIE to a Christian man and expect him to continue lying FOR YOU!
Makes me sick on 2 fronts: 1 that the religious right is willing to support a nominee SIMPLY on the issue of abortion alone and 2 that the WH is so BLATENTLY using the religious right to forward their OWN agenda (which, btw is not a originalist agenda).
I'm sick about hearing about Mier's religion! And I'm an evangelical myself! Religion in and of itself is NOT a qualifier nor a disqualifier for the SCOTUS, imho...
If we get an originalist, we ALL get what we want in the end. Shortsightedness... good grief!
The claim that most female candidates withdrew their names to avoid the "persecution" that would insue from the Democrats is really hard to swallow. Who in their right mind would do that if they were honest motivated jurists? They are a fearless bunch, especially motivated females...This whole spin is just malarkey from the WH IMO. If in fact the females on the list were such Wusses and we are left with Miers, Bush should have fallen back to his "best qualified" list and picked a guy like Luttig. (a non female...there I said it...I must be a sexist..for wanting a superior known conservative judge on the bench)