I'm not getting the gist of your post. Would that be a good shock because he actually *did* pick someone conservative, as your post's second part suggest?
Thanks.
Leahy has concerns about Harriet Miers
By Christopher Graff, Associated Press Writer | October 3, 2005
MONTPELIER, Vt. --U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy said Monday that he does not know much about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and has concerns about her close ties to President Bush.
"It is too early to reach any firm judgment about such an important nomination," said Leahy shortly after the president announced the nomination.
"I do not know Ms. Miers well and I did not meet her until recently, six months after she became the White House counsel," he said. "What I do know is that she has a reputation for being loyal to this president, whom she has a long history of serving as a close adviser and in working to advance his objectives.
"In an administration intent on accumulating executive power, Ms. Miers' views on - and role in - these issues will be important for the Senate to examine," said Leahy. "It is important to know whether she would enter this key post with the judicial independence necessary when the Supreme Court considers issues of interest to this administration."
Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, supported the nomination of John Roberts to be chief justice.
He said that Miers, who would replace Sandra Day O'Connor, would fill an "especially crucial seat on our nation's highest court," a reference to the fact that O'Connor was a decisive swing vote on many high profile cases.
Leahy, who met with the president to discuss possible nominees for the seat, said that "many will be surprised that the president did not pick a Hispanic woman from the many qualified Hispanics across the country recommended to the president."
The senator called on the White House and Miers to ensure that the Senate Judiciary Committee has all possible information to decide on the nomination.
"I supported Chief Justice Roberts nomination in spite of -- not because of -- the lack of cooperation from the White House and the misguided urgings of some senators that the nominee not be forthcoming about his judicial philosophy during the committee's hearings," he said.
"The White House should provide us with the information we need to have a full picture of Ms. Miers qualifications and record, and we will expect her to answer the questions that tell us what kind of a justice she would be in this especially crucial seat on our nations highest court," said Leahy.
Jim Barnett, the chairman of the state Republican Party, praised Miers as an outstanding nominee.
"Like Justice O'Connor, Harriet Miers blazed a trail for women as the first female leader of a prominent Texas law firm, the first woman president of the state bar of Texas and as the top lawyer to the president and the White House," said Barnett.
"I urge Senators Leahy and Jeffords to maintain the open mind they demonstrated in voting to confirm Chief Justice Roberts, and resist the inevitable pressure from far-left groups and Howard Dean to obstruct the confirmation process," he said.
U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords supported Roberts; former Gov. Howard Dean, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, did not.
"Would that be a good shock because he actually *did* pick someone conservative, as your post's second part suggest?"
Barnes was basically saying the conservatives he heard from, outside of the White House, were shocked in a negative way. He then went on to say that certain conservatives, inside the White House, were trying to reassure others that Miers is "conservative" and Bush would not have picked her if he didn't think so.