I am not a secret source in DC but I have been saying this from day 1.
It is the only logical explanation.
Luttig, Brown & co. are wonderful in the abstract. but that matters little if they could not be confirmed.
I stand by my original comment that none of the others could get 51 votes even if by some miracle, they got out of Committee.
With the squishy Republican Senate and an ineffective and super squishy Frist, the Dems would have won big time.
"Harriet Miers stands as the only nominee on Bush’s list which has any chance of confirmation by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The reasons for this are numerous, and would be embarrassing to the Conservative movement should one or many of the ‘stars’ who we hoped Bush would select be shot down in Committee, which again, if true, would be a certainty. "
"Luttig, McConnell, JRB, Owen, Alito, or anyone else you want to name, would have been defeated, and probably defeated in committee, in order to save other Senators from having to vote them down on the floor. Of this, I am now convinced. Only two names were considered allowable for Senate confirmation; Miers and Gonzales."
Many, many thinking people agree with you.
With the squishy Republican Senate and an ineffective and super squishy Frist, the Dems would have won big time.
So now that we've got the majority in both houses AND the White House is ours, we now have to purge the rinos.
jmho