That's right. That's why conservatives weren't thrilled with the Roberts pick. The bush bots were, but not conservatives. However, Roberts performance in the hearings made him pretty much invincible. There was no way he wasn't going to be confirmed.
Then came Miers. She'd have been a bad first pick, but she was an even worse second pick from conservatives' standpoint. Most conservatives (and even some bots) were speculating that the NEXT pick (after Roberts) would be a clear cut originalist. Instead we get his secretary. That's another reason the base has gone ballistic on this. It was insult added to injury.
Speak for yourself. She is the opposite of an intellectual, which I like. She appears to have common sense and is grounded. And, from EVERYONE who knows her, she is an "originalist." That's as good as it gets in my book. I do not want 9 Scalias on the court. One or two, yes. Not nine. There is a tendency in ANY organization to start over-philosophizing and over-intellectualizing and to lose the grounding of law that the rest of us will have to live under.
See its the "we get her secretary" comments that really make it hard for the anti-miers folks to gain better traction with the "wait-and-see" folks.
If her opponents would stick to the solid, well-founded issues of capability and jurisprudence, they would be more accepted. Nobody wants a judge that is incapable, or that has the wrong judicial philosophy.
If his lawyer for the last 10 years had been a male, can you imagine anybody would have called HIM "his secretary"?