I don't number myself among either the fall-on-your-sword true believers or the Bushbots. I neither hate Bush nor trust him beyond all contrary evidence.
I don't hate Harriet Miers, either.
What I do think, however, is that her nomination was a grievous mistake. She is not the best candidate. Her nomination has split the conservative ranks down the middle. The tensions and bad feelings on FR are only too clear. I'm not sure whether it may have slowed the process of quarterly fund raising, although certainly Jim Robinson has had nothing to do with this whole business either one way or the other. But it certainly has caste a lot of anger, gloom, bad will, and eagerness to hurl insults on the forum.
I think there's zero chance that her nomination will be withdrawn, and small chance it will be defeated. So we'd just better hope: a) that she proves to be a strong conservative voice on the court, preferably making that crystal clear before the 2006 senate elections (which hardly gives her much time); and b) that Rove and Bush have learned there lesson by this whole unpleasant experience and don't make the same mistake again.
It's very possible that Bush will have a chance to make one or two more SCOTUS appointments. We can't afford to weaken any further. Probably this stupid business of letting the RINOs, Harry Reid, and Arlen Specter dictate terms will already make it impossible for Bush to stiffen up next time and fight for a really strong candidate. But we sure need more reliable conservatives on the court, and this business doesn't help.
No, we can't back down now on Miers. But it was a horrible mistake that never should have been committed in the first place.
Who else could he have picked that would have been confirmed.
I don't think there is a chance in the world that any of those we wanted could have been confirmed.
There are too many chicken Republicans and they would have wimped out.
Pukin Dog's post makes as much sense as any I have seen. We need to support the president on this.