I am not upset that the nomination failed. That's poltiics. I am disgusted at the tactics and destructive arguments used by those who wanted it killed.
Who cares how many conservatives you have voted for if you're ready to betray us on every crucial issue...
That's the difference between you and me. I'm not worried about any personal sense of "betrayal." I have a practical sense of politics and what it takes to build winning coalitions. I have yet to see that same understanding demonstrated by the uber-right, which constantly finds itself disgruntled about something or another. Most of you are the same people who followed Perot over the cliff and gave us the Clinton presidency. Most of you would put a pure demagogue like Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes in elective office if you could.
You can't build a winning coalition without the conservative base, you can't hold onto the conservative base unless you serve our primary goal of correcting the courts, and you can't correct the courts with nominees like Harriet Miers.
If your coalition is so important then you should be first in line to see that conservatives get what we want here. But I think it is only really important to you when it is an excuse to betray a vital interest of a coalition partner.