Posted on 10/14/2005 10:09:51 AM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"She will pretty certainly be confirmed unless something really bad comes out in the hearings, which I really don't expect. She is too much of a professional, too skilled at getting along with people, for that to be at all likely."
You sure about that? She might not get out of the Senate judiciary committe. Republicans have a 10-8 head count advantage over the Dems, but if, what?, just one Republican doesn't vote to let her out, and all Dems are against her, then the nomination is killed.
Bush has finally split the conservatives from the Republican party. Just as well. It needed doing.
"Caused by the party itself."
This is entirely Bush's fault. The one thing he wasn't supposed to stab his base in the back over was supreme court nominations. On this one issue, it was implicit that he would stand up and fight - be political in other words.
Well, I stand corrected. It's also the fault of conservatives for nominating this guy in the primaries in the first place.
Let's not make the same mistake with Jeb, hmmkay? Here's the lesson: Bush = bad. We just bring it on ourselves.
My mistake, I misread the original argument re: lack of support with the President's own party.
Fortas was a Dem nonimee who was shut down by Republicans.
Well, it's what conservative activists want. To say now, after decades worth of effort to reverse the tide on the Supreme Court, who are you to say "no, you can't do that."
Not true. The nomination then goes to the Senate floor with a "no recommendation."
Every Supreme Court nominee gets an up-or-down vote.
Yeah, but where do the conservatives go, now? We aren't happy with our party (too many RINOs, our prez is a big spending/pro illegal immigration lib, etc...), but there is no other viable party to vote for or to contribute to. I tried at one point to create a party, but there is just no way to do something like that on your own without tons of cash and support. The conservative movement needs somewhere to go, or we are finished. The conservative parties that are out there are, well, too "out there". :)
The Liberatarians are pro-open border, so forget them, and the Constitution party wants to turn the USA into a theocracy (otherwise, they are great, but I don't want to be forced to go to church under pain of death).
So, the question remains: Where do we go from here?
Bush wants her way too much. And I want to know the real reason why.
I don't know why the Democrats on the committee would block her. It's to their advantage to let it go to the floor, where the Republicans will have a really big food fight among themselves. Then, if they like, they can vote against her there along with any conservatives who oppose her.
Or it's possible they will want to see her confirmed, because I am becoming more and more convinced that she will be liberal on many issues. If they shoot her down, they risk a more conservative nomination with the Republicans once more reunited--assuming that Bush doesn't come up with someone even worse, like Gonzalez.
"He was the one elected, not these litttle POed talking heads and arm-chair quarterbacks. You know, the ones who stand to do long term damage to the party."
Riiiiiiiiight! Those little "POed talking heads" you are referring to would be Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, George Will, et al. Yeah, they don't know what they are talking about. BUT YOU have it all figured out!!!
Thanks for the ping!
Please shjow me where teh Constitution says that. The Senate can make its decision based on essentially anything, including political ideology. However, that is not what I am advocating. What I am advocating is that we seek evidence relating to Miss Miers' judicial philosophy -- how she reads the Constitution (whether strictly or broadly) and how she interprets law. There is no record that she has ever said anything or written anything on these matters, and tehy are the essential concern of a Supreme Court justice.
"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."
This is a great point. Everyone seems to be acting like this is the absolute first time for this kind of heresy. You ought to post a thread naming the troubled nominees, and their final withdrawals or defeats. A lotta short memories.
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