[decal]

Great, another Harriet Miers thread...

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP

[flashbunny]

Know-nothing john fund alert...

[Soul Seeker]

Mr. Rath didn't return my calls, and local sources say he is laying low now that reporters have uncovered his key role in pushing the nomination of David Souter in 1990. "It was Rath and [then-Sen. Warren] Rudman who convinced [then White House chief of staff] John Sununu to back Souter," recalls Gordon Humphrey, a former U.S. senator from the Granite State who at the time supported Judge Souter as a member of the Judiciary Committee.......

Another reason for conservative suspicion is that it was Mr. Card, a former moderate Massachusetts state legislator, who pushed the Miers choice. "This is something that Andy and the president cooked up," a White House adviser told Time magazine. "Andy knew it would appeal to the president because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said.

Wonderful. The one who pushed Souter is sent to arm twist conservative Senators, and now a new detail I was unaware of.... Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu. It just keeps getting better.

[SupplySider]

My only worry now is who the president will appoint after Ms Meirs goes down.

[wigswest]

While I am deeply troubled by the Miers nomination, and would wish for a candidate who's been proven to fight for judicial conservatism "in the trenches", this statement from the article give me pause:

When Douglas Ginsburg asked to have his nomination to the Supreme Court pulled in 1987 after allegations he had used marijuana, Ronald Reagan won unanimous confirmation in a Democratic Senate for Anthony Kennedy, then a judge with a decade-long conservative track record on a federal appellate court.

Please, someone convince me we aren't facing the possibility of losing as big as we did with Kennedy in this crapshoot, should we get our wish for a proven judicial conservative.

[counterpunch]

"Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer,"

LOL!
What's sitting on Bush's desk in the Oval Office right now:

Things To Do
    Withdraw Miers nomination
    Nominate Janice Rogers Brown
    Fire Andy Card

Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, both of whom won tough confirmation battles for seats on appellate courts only this spring, were nixed by other GOP Senators as too tough a battle for the high court.

That's how you know one of these two is the right choice... if Republicans want to win in 2006, that is.

 

[FairOpinion]

"Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said. "


===

Getting another "Souter in a skirt" as some put it, is exactly what concerns a lot of us, especially since Miers support for affirmative action came to light.

[FairOpinion]

"Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said. "


===

Getting another "Souter in a skirt" as some put it, is exactly what concerns a lot of us, especially since Miers support for affirmative action came to light.

[Maynerd]

Interesting insight of the moderate republican from Massachusettes, Andy Card, fomer deputy to John Sununu in thw HW Bush WH:

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said.

[msnimje]

Similar pressure has been applied in New Hampshire, site of the nation's first presidential primary in 2008. Newsweek has reported that "when George W. Bush's political team wanted to send ambitious Republican senators a firm message about Harriet Miers (crude summary: 'Lay off her if you ever want our help'),"

What a brilliant way to spend political capital - use is AGAINST members of your own party.

[TAdams8591]

"knew it would appeal to the president because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said."

Could the above red flag BE any bigger?

Another good article on this nomination by Mr. Fund.

[TAdams8591]

Please read below:

"Rewriting the history of Ms. Miers's selection. After political pushback by conservatives became clear, the White House apparently engaged in spurious spin to explain the logic of the selection. Dr. James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, says he was told by White House aide Karl Rove that other female candidates had withdrawn from consideration because "the process had become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter that they didn't want to subject themselves or their families to it." White House aides have told others the same story, but will mention names only privately. Many now feel they were misled.

After making several calls to White House and Senate staffers as well as conservative activists who unofficially advised the White House, I have grave doubts about the White House storyline, as do others. One potential nominee did want the White House to know she had some family problems that could bear on the selection process but she did not withdraw her name. Three whose names the White House has privately mentioned as having dropped out say they are angry at any suggestion they did."

Just as many of us suspected.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The most urgent thing they need to learn is how to wave a magic wand and turn Senate RhINOs into Elephants with a spine. If (probably when) one or more screaming liberals on the Court bite the big one while Bush is still in office, we will long for the days of how "easy" it was to get Miers in.

[Map Kernow]

Thank you for posting this. I urge all conservatives of good faith and integrity to read the entire article. The combination of folly and deceit that went into this nomination and its defense is staggering.

[trubluolyguy]

hmmm, lessons to be learned?

1) Never nominate an inexperienced crony and expect supporters to automatically fall down in prostration at your colossal intellect.

[wouldntbprudent]

This is something that Andy and the president cooked up," a White House adviser told Time magazine. "Andy knew it would appeal to the president because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

[GOPJ]

In fact, it became clear Ms. Miers is a complete mystery. "We spent about 1,200 hours together and had in excess of 6,000 agenda items, and I never knew where Harriet was going to be on any of those items until she cast her vote," Jim Buerger, a former Miers colleague on the Dallas City Council, told the Washington Post. "I wouldn't consider her a liberal, a moderate or a conservative, and I can't honestly think of any cause she championed."

When Martin Bubur was asked about power, he explained power was needed in life to accomplish goals, and that power only became corrupt or evil when it was sought after only for it's own sake. It's not comforting when a look at Miers issues tells us the only reason she's in public service is for her own benefit.

[Cicero]

She's not only a bleeding heart liberal, she's an incompetent.

I used to prep our graduate students for job interviews. One of the first questions I told them to think about was this: "Why do you want this job?" Or, perhaps, "Why do you want to teach at Crestboro Community College?"

I can't believe she couldn't answer the question, Why do you want to be a Supreme Court justice? Who the hell prepped this woman? Was it the same guy who prepped Laura to go on a liberal TV show and accuse her husband's conservative base of being nasty sexists?

I've said from the start that Bush should withdraw this nomination and throw somebody to the wolves for screwing up, preferably Andrew Card. Now I'll borrow that graphic from further up this thread:

Things To Do
    Withdraw Miers nomination
    Nominate Janice Rogers Brown
    Fire Andy Card