What are your thoughts on how this looks from the Dem point of view. I fear that the administration appears weaker now than before.
The Pres can't help that she withdrew, I know, but the implications of her doing so concern me.
It is weaker. Therefore, expect Bush to nominate an acceptable SC candidate to the screamers, but to exert his independence from them in another area of policy.
There will be ample opportunity over the next three years to do that.
I saw Patrick Leahy just about doing the dance of joy...over the fact that the conservatives smacked down Bush's pick....and that Bush's "capitol" that he had from his reelection is now GONE....
IOW---the dems will be really loaded for bear now...because they know that some conservatives don't trust Bush to make good decisons and they will exploit that.
If the president nominates a good conservative, to the extent that is indeed the perception among democrats, conservatives and Republicans will rally around the President and it will dissipate quickly.
Frankly, I believe the democrats are scared out of their wits at this point. We might get another staunch conservative on the court.
Whose fault is that? The President nominated an utterly unqualified Miers simply because she was his personal legal counsel and she shares his religious zealotry. Can you say Nepotism?
I voted for George W. Bush twice, I held signs for him and worked hard to convince friends, neighbors and family to vote for him. I would do it again if only because what the Democrat Party offered was far worse. The President is no conservative and I voted for the lesser of two evils, it now seems. I strongly support his strategic vision for the War on Terror, but I was terribly disappointed in his seeming inability to adequately explain it during the campaign and since. The man babbles like an idiot! I know he is not an idiot, but he sounds like one. When leading the greatest nation on earth, a President needs to clearly outline his plan for policies foreign and domestic and be able to explain and defend them. I am insulted that he seemed to think that myself and other thoughtful, conservative, Republican voters would believe everything is all right if only we could be reassured that Miers volunteered for Meals On Wheels and is a fundamentalist Christian. I am unhappy with the flawed legal reasoning that led to Roe v. Wade, but it is emphatically not the most important issue facing the court and unlikely to be overturned in the foreseeable future. I would be perfectly happy to let each state decide its own policy by popular vote and allow or disallow abortion on a state by state basis. I fear that legal lightweights like Miers would like to impose different, but equally onerous, extra-Constitutional mandates on us all. Rather than being reassured by the President's description of Miers, I found suspicions raised in my mind. I don't want a religious zealot imposing the Christian equivalent of Muslim Sharia on me any more than I want Ruth Bader Ginsberg imposing the values of the lunatic ACLU left.