Calls for Miers to withdraw get louder; Moves to mollify critics aren't working<P>

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/14/05 | Carolyn Lochhead

[Ol' Sparky]

Calls for Miers to withdraw get louder

Moves to mollify critics aren't working

Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, October 14, 2005

Washington -- Calls by conservatives for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers to withdraw her nomination intensified Thursday as White House efforts to reassure critics continued to backfire.

"The calls to withdraw are serious, and they're going to increase," said Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a conservative alliance of groups interested in judicial nominations. "The more that we heard from the nomination's defenders, the more people became convinced that there was no substance in the nomination and that her friends were her worst enemies."

Miranda, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted that a critical point will arrive next week when the Senate returns to Washington from a recess.

By then, Republicans "will have gauged the feeling out in their constituencies, and at that point they will be able to determine whether the White House is delusional or not."

[Semper Paratus]

The left is making a lot of popcorn watching this fight.

[austinite]

GOOD!

Is that loud enough?

[drt1]

Wouldn't expect anything less from the San Francisco Chronicle. Nothing here.

[TBP]

President Bush will not withdraw the nomination. But we need some real evidence that Miers is an originalist or she will have to be defeated.

[austinite]

The left is making a lot of popcorn watching this fight.

I don't care if the children are enjoying the parents fighting. This is too important.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

If she doesn't withdraw, she's one tough lady.

[bkepley]

I think people are making too much of this. Plenty of Supreme Court nominees have had to withdraw or been defeated because of lack of support within the President's party.

[Frank T]

Can't have that, can we?

[Froufrou]

Yes, there's been too much made of it. It appears that most of the whining is about her lack of ivy league pedigree, that she's single, and a recently converted Catholic. :O

[Vigilanteman]

Simple solution:

Appoint Janice Rogers Brown and put Harriet Miers in her spot on the DC Court of Appeals. Brown has already been questioned extensively by the Senate and Miers has been virtually approved by Harry Reid & Co., making her a shoo-in for the lower court.

[dc-zoo]

I see you're still trying to fire up 'ol sparky' and send Miers to the "chair".

[Regallos de Peros]

"I think people are making too much of this. Plenty of Supreme Court nominees have had to withdraw or been defeated because of lack of support within the President's party."

Such as?

[lilylangtree]

If the prez wants her and believes in her along the with likes of her own pastor, Dr. Dobson, Jay Sekulow and others, Miers sounds good to me. In the last decades, judicial restraint is really required.

[Cboldt]

As long as Republicans "keep cannibalizing one another," he said, "Democrats can sit back and watch it happen and then pick among the rubble afterward."

Boy are they going to be surprised to learn that all parts of the rubble are against THEM. LOL

[jneesy]

i am a good christian too

can i have the next spot on scotus

i love bush but this blind loyalty is bad for the country

[Leatherneck_MT]

Amen

[RichInOC]

"I'm tempted to call my friendly adversaries on the right and ask them whether we can make some joint recommendations to the Senate on document requests of the White House and the line of questioning during the hearings," said Ralph Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way.

Just in case anybody here wants to call him first and volunteer:

People For the American Way
2000 M Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036

202-467-4999
800-326-7329

pfaw@pfaw.org

[Regallos de Peros]

"If the prez wants her and believes in her along the with likes of her own pastor, Dr. Dobson, Jay Sekulow and others, Miers sounds good to me. In the last decades, judicial restraint is really required."

What is the basis for your apparent belief that Miers has adopted the judicial restraint philosophy? Personally, I've read everything I can find about her background and don't see any evidence of it whatsoever. To me, being asked to believe it because Bush and others "vouch" for her is vastly insufficient given the importance of the nomination and the long list of names of people who have proven their adherence to judicial restraint. I think this nomination was profoundly misguided.

[Frank T]

"If she doesn't withdraw, she's one tough lady."

Or another stubborn RINO.