Posted on 10/13/2005 11:26:12 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
WASHINGTON - The White House is seeking the help of Republican activists in Iowa and New Hampshire to pressure GOP senators with presidential hopes to support Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.
The effort, coming as the White House seeks to reassure conservatives skeptical about Miers' qualifications, is largely aimed at turning up the heat on Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, White House aides acknowledged on Thursday.
Brownback, who is considering a White House run in 2008, has not said whether he will vote for the nomination. His support is particularly important to the White House because he is one of the 10 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will have the first vote on Miers.
Iowa and New Hampshire are early primary states important to any candidate running for president.
The White House effort to try to pressure Brownback and others through prominent Republicans in New Hampshire was first reported on Thursday by the New Hampshire Union-Leader. White House aides confirmed the account and said a similar effort was being made in Iowa.
ping
Be your OWN man senator!
Funny.
They can twist the arms of the conservatives to support miers, but they don't dare twist the arms of the RINOs to get them to support a proven originalist nominee.
Great strategery there.
One would think that GOP senate candidates who wanted a more established Conservative justice would do better than one who toes the party line. In my book, being opposed to the party line would be the only thing that would make me consider voting for a Candidate. Domestically, Bush is worse than the dems.
Coburn: Open-minded. Looks forward to the hearings.
Oh, this is just dandy! If there's one thing this Supreme Court nomination needed, it's more hardball politics. ;-)
The whole purpose of nominating someone like Miers was that she's a stealth candidate (in addition to not having any male sexual organs). The White House thought it could avoid a big fight like it did with Roberts' nomination, but now it finds itself in a bench-clearing brawl.
Apparently, Bush would rather fight with fellow Republicans like Brownback than fight with Democrats like Schumer, Kennedy and Patty Murray. But I guess we already knew that from our experiences with the education bill, illegal immigration, increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and doubling of aid to Africa.
Right now George W. Bush is running around like a lost kid in a shopping mall, trying deperately to find anyone who will help him out. If he had just nominated a solid conservative, he'd have an army of volunteers - not just in Iowa and New Hampshire, by the way - jumping at the chance to help. WHAT A MESS!
As reported in this thread
Sessions: My conversations with Harriet Miers indicate that she is a first-rate lawyer and a fine person. Her legal skills are proven and her reputation throughout the legal community is excellent. It is not necessary that she have previous experience as a judge in order to serve on the Supreme Court. Its perfectly acceptable to nominate outstanding lawyers to that position. I look forward to the confirmation process and to learning more about her judicial philosophy.
Coburn: "Harriet Miers deserves a fair and thorough hearing and confirmation process. I look forward to learning more about her qualifications and judicial philosophy in the coming days, Dr. Coburn said, adding that he plans to meet with Miers this week.
"They can twist the arms of the conservatives to support miers, but they don't dare twist the arms of the RINOs to get them to support a proven originalist nominee."
THAT is EXACTLY what I was about to post!!
Not only will they not twist their arm, FB-- they will reward them like they did in campaigning for Specter over Toomey (im not buying the "tradition" argument, this is about forwarding a conservative agenda). Now they are supporting Chaffee over a more conservative challenger for the 2006 RI senate race.
This is the late Nackey Loeb's outfit, run by her son-in-law. He's a horse's ass who hates Bush, and also doesn't think his newspaper needs to do anything to pressure NH reps to pass a tough child abuse law (O'Reilly took this girly-man to the cleaners over it).
So, anything he can do to stick a shiv in Bush is what he will do.
"Right now George W. Bush is running around like a lost kid in a shopping mall, trying deperately to find anyone who will help him out."
And kicking the shins of those who he thinks are being 'disloyal' to him.
The White House is seeking the help of Republican activists in Iowa and New Hampshire to pressure GOP senators with presidential hopes to support Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.
what i dont understand is why they're trying to strong arm him, i guess they want the appearance of unity?
based on the reaction we've heard from the dems so far-- enough will likely vote for her (harkin defending her, etc) to get confirmed.
They can twist the arms of the conservatives to support miers, but they don't dare twist the arms of the RINOs to get them to support a proven originalist nominee.
Great strategery there.
Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are both RINOs, but they are also both women. If the White House had to twist their arms, that might offend Laura Bush.
Sickening.
based on the reaction we've heard from the dems so far-- enough will likely vote for her (harkin defending her, etc) to get confirmed.
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