She would have been the nominee otherwise IMO. Let's hope Miers is the same.
A mild re-iteration from above.
With Owens withdrawing herself, the list of FR rockstars narrows. You have to ask yourself which side would be willing to expose a nominee's historical faux pas. If Luttig had a nanny tax problem in his past, do you really think MoveOn would decide that it was not worth destroying a man's career over?
GW Bush said HM is the most qualified candidate. I interpreted this to include confirmability as a qualification in the context of Bush having called the RINOs. Now it becomes clear the meaning of qualified could have been broader. There may have been vetting problems with JRB or Luttig. It really, truly doesn't take much.
Clarence Thomas was clean and the left manufactured a vetting problem for him. Had they not been distracted by Cindy Sheehan (I often wonder if Bush took a long vacation for this very reason) they would have been far far deeper into Roberts' adoptions.
HM has been vetted clean. That, as much as Bush's knowledge of her philosophy, may have been her most powerful qualification.
I think she would have been.
But if you want some evidence of the fact that the dim strategy was to smear the candidates personally, on Tuesday just the day after Miers was nominated some nasty little radio rumor monger began to plant the idea that she was gay.
That seems to be the line of attack now. During the hearings for John Roberts, in one of the most disgusting displays I have ever seen, it was insinuated that Jack his four year old son was gay.
Unless we can protect the families we are going to have the people we want saying thanks but no thanks.