Posted on 10/28/2005 12:44:42 AM PDT by Crackingham
When President Bush shocked supporters and opponents alike a month ago by nominating Harriet Miers, his White House Counsel, to the vacancy on the Supreme Court, an intriguing conspiracy theory did the rounds in Washington. Ms Miers, so self-evidently unqualified for a seat on the nation’s highest court, was a kind of stalking horse, the theory went. The real Bush plan, masterminded no doubt by his Machiavellian amanuensis Karl Rove, was to put an extreme conservative jurist on the court, someone who would vote to overturn abortion rights, outlaw affirmative action and break down the barriers between Church and State.
The problem was that someone like that would have a very tough time getting confirmed by the Senate. Though the Republicans have a majority in the upper house of the Congress, which must approve Supreme Court candidates, the Democrats, who would obviously oppose such a nominee, have enough votes to block his (or her) confirmation.
The best way to proceed, then, was to put up first a candidate the White House knew would get knocked down. Having “regretfully” and “humiliatingly” withdrawn that candidate, the President could then, with heavily orchestrated reluctance and irritation, put up the suitably qualified favourite.
The Democrats would have a hard time in the court of public opinion if they now took exception to someone who was, whatever their judicial intentions, at least smart, capable and experienced. They wouldn’t want the potential opprobrium of throwing out a second nominee.
Goodbye Harriet. Come on down, Attila.
It was always fanciful. Democrats did not, in fact, have much to do with the defeat of the Miers nomination. It was Republicans who most objected to her. The theory is further undermined by the fact that Mr Rove has been otherwise engaged for most of the past month or so, desperately trying to avoid the indictment that many Washington observers think will be handed down to him today by Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor.
But with Ms Miers’s departure yesterday, Mr Bush does at least have a chance to salvage something from the wreckage of a disastrous few weeks. Most importantly, her forced martyrdom was an absolutely essential first step in the President’s broader political recovery.
The greatest danger for a political leader is when his own side turns on him. After the deepening problems in Iraq and the poor handling of the Katrina relief effort, Mr Bush needed his Republican base more than ever — and it was just at that moment that he most enraged them with the choice of Ms Miers.
The opposition had come almost exclusively from conservative Republicans who not only disliked what they saw of her views, but felt she was simply too lightweight to advance the conservative cause. Yesterday they were returning to Mr Bush’s side, at a crucial moment for the presidency. The National Review, a conservative magazine that showered the White House in bile over the Miers choice, said in an online editorial: “Gloating would be unseemly” but “today is the best day Republicans have had in some time.”
And not before time. If the special prosecutor does strike at the White House today, Mr Bush will at least not have to face the fire with its conservative supporters in a fractured and demoralised state.
The Miers withdrawal gives Mr Bush a chance to relaunch his presidency. If he does lose some of his most important advisers to the CIA leak investigation, supporters have been telling him, he must act quickly to seize control of the political agenda again. Picking a better nominee would be the ideal way to do that. If he finds someone more acceptable to his own party it may lead to a fight with Democrats but Republicans will at least feel they have recovered a sense of direction and momentum.
In his dreams ...
Bush can relaunch his presidency?? hahaha..with a fractured base thanks to the "burn her at the stake" NRO?
Just watch the our new government of the NRO come out with their pick.....just watch the promoting begin.....probably before the ink dries on Miers forced withdrawal.
Reality Check-
This revolt over the last few weeks was serious because it was led by conservatives that generally have backed this President, even when at times in disagreement. They didn't, and I didn't, enjoy the separation for one single day it was in progress. Principles trumped loyalty because the Court is too important to sacrifice for one man.
They are now returning to his side. Cease fire is commencing. On word of a good choice as a replacement for O'Connor that return will be completed. Movement rejuvenated, as well as this Presidency.
Anyone that may have possessed the thought this was the defining moment, and I don't know if you are one of them, where we turn on Bush forever coming to our senses about him is the one dreaming.
It is true from this point conservatives may well be less inclined to "forgive" policies they are in disagreement with when proposed, spending and immigration will be closely followed I suspect, but the majority of conservatives have a store of good will still for this President and seek to protect his Presidency and the way to do this is by advancing conservative principles. Nominating the right Judge will be the first appropriate step.
While not forced to comment on this quote, I must say it is the naive thing I have read in the last ten minutes.
Principles trumped loyalty because the Court is too important to sacrifice for one man.
You are absolutely correct in this statement.
Nominating the right J[ustice] will be the first appropriate step.
If there is/are indictment[s] today, Friday, look for the President to cap the day off with the announcement of his nominee. I pray that his choice will be an acceptable one.
Cease fire is commencing. On word of a good choice as a replacement for O'Connor that return will be completed. Movement rejuvenated, as well as this Presidency.
I think we are on the same page on this.
LOL
I'm afraid you did not get the memo.....
This is not the first time this has been done to this admin, and I can guarantee you it will be the last.
This government, now controlled by a republican majority cannot have the policy dictated from the bleachers without losing that majority.
You seem to think you alone voted this government in, and you are sadly mistaken. The center will not be coming with you, and you have stepped out on the proverbial branch with the chainsaw on the wrong side.
As you will see soon enough.
We can't keep meeting like this!
I thought you were leaving ... LOL!
It's my prayer as well.
Rumors of possible names for the Court seem to be encouraging. I'm certain some of them have been deliberately floated by the admin.
Judicial lawmaking is destroying our system of government.
Amen to that.
Yes, I've seen your grand proclamations of restoring the Party to the days of the Rockefellar minority Party.
I certainly expect this element of the Party (represented by the seven) to attempt to reclaim control given their defeat of the nomination they selected for this President at the hands of conservatives.
You are welcome to try. Winner claims control of the agenda. Give it your best shot.
A moderate? On FR? Did you make a wrong turn at Albuquerque?
The staunch conservatives are the ones out working the cold, mean streets to elect Republicans.
The "center" you arrogantly wave about sits on its collective hands while the true conservatives do the hard work of campaigning.
When you cavalierly throw true conservatives over the side, you throw away Republican electoral victory.
That's the real story of the Meiers fiasco.
A bunch of arrogant Republican Senators figured that out in a hurry when their best campaigners threatened mutiny.
True conservatives don't sit in "the bleachers." We have a passion for principle we turn into street action using shoe leather, something missing in the arrogance of the do-nothing "moderates" of the center.
We don't appreciate being mocked by those who didn't lift a finger to achieve electoral victory.
We expect the principles for which we toiled to be upheld.
Imagine that.
I really doubt Rove was thinking along these lines.
I doubt Rove is the kind of conservative ideologue we would like to see guiding Bush. I think Rove's plan was to try to get a popular consensus candidate approved who would strenghthen Bush's popularity with the center and liberals - an idle idiotic dream. Bush, a man who is manifestly a ture moderate and not a conservative, is destested by the left and nothing he does will ever please them so he should stop trying.
If Rove gets shoved out of office in a scandal - so much the better. I don't believe he is ideologically in tune with most of us at all and couldn't care less about conservatives - especially now when Bush no longer needs us to get re-elected. Now Rove fancies himself playing to the future audience of Americans to come with Bush as some great political healer.
There is a cultural war on in America and its getting more bitter with time. The left is becoming more extreme and more dedicted to destroying all traditional values in America. They are using the courts as well as the mainstream media to do this.
We need a President who is willing to attack the left, destroy their credibility with those gulliable Americans who follow them and drive the left into the same dustpan of history that Reagan directed the Evil Empire into. If this is not done and done soon, America as we all knew and loved it will soon cease to exist.
Clearly. Bush is not that man, and I see no one on the horizon yet on the right thinking that way.
You have participated in something that has nothing to do with Rockefeller's and everything to do with pure politics and the realities of national elections and domestic policy.
With base split, and believe me, it is split on more than just this recent mess, the candidates will have but one choice, and that will be to go for the center which is much bigger and has more votes. They can ignore most of the fringe rs on either side, and they have done this before when this has happened.
It's now the perfect storm, because the Dem base is fractured as well and it makes perfect political sense to ignore the fringes and concentrate on the middle ground.
In order for a coalition to remain viable, the fringes have to hold on to the center as much as they can. In this case, and in other episodes this year alone, this has not happened and the fringes on both sides have cut their ties and alienated themselves from the larger and more closely associated centers.
You already see this move with McCain, and others will follow suit. The primaries will have center involvement like never before in the next election cycles and they see it already, even before this mess occurred.
It has all happened before, and the last time it resulted in a strengthened third parties. Ross Perot was the last one that affected the elections on the conservative side, largely because the Republican party elite had ignored the center. It eventually led to Buchanan bolting the party when the RNC tried to get the center back and successfully so.
Further back, the Reagan revolution was a matter of a former democrat who understood why people were pissed and he appealed to the center while the right trashed him unmercifully but he won and won big.
You have done and continue to make the same faulty assumptions that they did. History is repeating, and I don't think there is much that anyone can do to stop it. In fact, many may not want to.
Yeah, that is what Buchanan said.....Did him a lot of good didn't it.
Notify me when you finish sawing off the branch you are standing on. I'll give you some suggestions on where to find a new home.
LOL!
I was here before you!:-)
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