Posted on 10/20/2005 1:27:08 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
The Miers Support Team: Gloomy and Demoralized Now they’re discussing stopping her visits to the Senate.
Strategists working with the White House in support of the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers are becoming increasingly demoralized and pessimistic about the nomination's prospects on Capitol Hill in the wake of Miers's meetings with several Republican and Democratic senators. On a conference call held this morning, they even discussed whether Miers should simply stop visiting with lawmakers, lest any further damage be done — and so that time spent in such get-acquainted sessions will not cut into Miers's intensive preparation for her confirmation hearing.
The strategists discuss issues on a twice-weekly conference call led by Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society who has taken leave to help the White House shepherd the nomination through the Senate. A number of people who have taken part in the calls described the conversations to National Review Online. None wanted to be identified, because they do not want to openly oppose the White House or defy loyalists like Leo who are trying hard to defend Miers. Nevertheless, they paint a grim portrait of morale among those close to the nomination.
"The number of participants is declining," says one knowledgeable source. "With Roberts, these calls occurred five or six or seven times a week. Pretty early on, the calls on Miers were scaled back to twice a week. That says something in and of itself."
"It's been a gradual descent into almost silence," says a second source of the calls. "The meetings with the senators are going terribly. On a scale of one to 100, they are in negative territory. The thought now is that they have to end....Obviously the smart thing to do would be to withdraw the nomination and have a do-over as soon as possible. But the White House is so irrational that who knows? As of this morning, there is a sort of pig-headed resolve to press forward, cancel the meetings with senators if necessary, and bone up for the hearings."
"They are going to be keeping the meetings that they've already scheduled," says a third source. "But they have scheduled murder boards today from 12 to 5. She has to focus on her hearing. And the questionnaire that wasn't filled out, to me that's an indication [the White House] hasn't done the vetting. She has to spend a lot of time discussing stuff that should have been done before. So between those two things — finishing the questionnaire and preparing for the hearing, which is going to be make or break — they prefer to put her time into that."
"In the early days, there were people on the call who tried to give facile defenses of Miers, and they were immediately shot down," says a fourth source. "And by the way, those defenses weren't as insulting as the White House line — no way would they have done the 'sexist, elitist' line."
In summary, says the first source, "People have been looking for ways to support this. There are a lot of us who would like to find a reason to be encouraged. Every time I try to accommodate myself to this nomination, folks at the White House say idiotic things that piss me off, like that spin on Rove's part about her supposed deep involvement in judicial selection for three years, which is just not accurate."
"Demoralization and pessimism?" the source continues. "That's been a constant. We're in the various stages of grief."
Bush ain't pulling Miers nomination and I doubt Miers is going to stand down. The deal is done. Respect the President's decision. Respect the nominee. At least allow Miers to speak out in the Senate hearings before you lynch her.
It isn't a smear if it's true. As far as "qualified" is concerned, she's borderline. But the Dems'll be able to make the charge with a clear conscience because they let the even-more-unqualified Julie Myers go forward into ICE -- an agency this Amnestîzo White House would just as soon see fail, anyway. Myers-with-a-y has never supervised more than three people before in her short, achievement-poor life. So Bush owes the Dems for letting her skate into the new job, where career agents are already looking at openings in agencies that will still enforce the law.
Miers-with-an-i, on the other hand, has done good stuff like run the Texas Bar Association, a left-wing lawyers' union dedicated to increasing the lawyerization of everything in society.
Are there any arguments being made in her favour except, "Trust President Bush," and, "she's the right religion"? The first of those is insufficient, and the second, frankly, offensive. Not to mention an unconstitutional qualification for office.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
An intervention is necessary. Some wise reasonable voices need to speak to the President about what's going on, the damage done to the party, etc. They need to spell out the consequences to his second term agenda and the elections.
Then they need to urge the President to pull the plug on this one. He'll tell Harriet, she will be a loyal soldier and withdraw her name. Bush will pick a winner and begin to stop the damage.
The problem is that Bush has created a wedge issue among Republicans. If a GOP senator votes against Miers than many republican voters will perceive that as betraying the president and the party.
On the other hand, if a GOP voters for Miers, many republican voters will perceive that as betraying the conservative cause and lacking integrity by voting for a stealth nomination.
No matter what a GOP senator that is up for re-election in 2006 does, it will cost him a significant number of GOP voters. At the least, it will depress GOP turnout which the party cannot afford as Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 3 or 4 percent points.
Why not at least try to get a nominee with a sound constuctionalist track record confirmed? Even it is filibustered, it would motivate the conservative base for the 2006 elections.
That is too late. Miers will just invoke the Ginsberg rule and refuse to answer any questions about issues that might possibly come up before the court in the future.
At that point, the GOP senators will pretty much have to vote for her confirmation in order to avoid a party civil war.
You left out "outraged, hysterical, northeastern, sexist, elitist, cynical, Bush-hating Republicans/conservatives/Freepers.
Well, Goliath and the Philistines laughed at David.;)
It seems that the Miers supporters are taking a break from free republic. I guess they are either fed up, or else the reality is starting to sink in...what do you think?
Nope. Bush also claimed to know Vladimir Putin's heart and look how off he was on that one.
you know you are on a losing campaign when the candidate you back loses more votes, the more people he meets....
Yes, it would be ironic if in fact the President were conservative.
"so now he has to nominate a "conservative" to please the base. not a bad strategy."
I think if that happens, there will be rejoicing all around...the scare thing, though, is that some are saying GWB is pissed at the base for not getting in line and is going to stick it to them. He doesn't need conservatives any more after all.
All that said, though, this strikes me as untenable. They nominated Roberts for the O'Connor seat. Then when the Chief came open, rather than doing the work, they took the easy way out and just promoted Roberts. This left them with no game plan on this seat. Then the Chief of Staff saw his chance to get rid of Harriett...and here we are.
The same phenomenon is seen on stock market discussion boards. When the stock market melts, the bulls vanish; when it rockets upward, the bears disappear.
ITS INTERVENTION TIME. Bush without Andy, Laura or Karl. Three members of Congress (e.g. Santorum,Brownback)/three sages in the conservative movement meet in the Cabinet Room. No cell phones, blackberries, etc.
The delegation spells out the problem. Indicate the extent of the rift. Promise the POTUS support for a new pick. Bush could have her withdraw with minimal blowback. Delegation comes out and says nothing. Miers withdraws within 48 hours. The WH announces within days a new nominee.
Which is it? One or two?
"In the end, its just going to be you, Bush, Andy Card, James Dobson, and a handful of lingering sycophants."
I wouldn't bet on Dobson going down with the ship.
Yep.
My money is still on David . . . er, I mean . . . Harriet. :-)
With all respect this is a terrible strategy and also very unlikely to be true.
The justly deserved ill will and contempt borne of this nomination were utterly predictable. Whoever the President nominates next (if that ever happens) will have to contend with being seen through the filter of this fiasco. The President's motivations will be called into question, and the damaging precedents set by this nomination (she's a woman! she's a Christian!") will have infected the whole process.
Conservatives must listen to the following -- because they misunderstand the real poker game the President has been playing with them:
The President nominated great choices for the lower courts to bluff conservatives, to disarm them, to win their unquestioning loyalty. Putting aside that he did not lift a finger in their defense when they were being so unfairly trashed, he didnt have to worry anyway, because none of them were going to affect the course of jurisprudence where they sat.
Having set up conservatives at so little a price ... the price of a sop ... the President proceeded to nominate his kind of jurist to the bench that counts. Their stealth was (is) not aimed at liberals, but at conservatives. He has no intention of changing the course of the SC.
His mistake was in treating conservatives the way he treats Christians, like they were idiots or docile little mind-numbed robots. Surprise, surprise, even poker players get their bluffs called once they get a little too smirkful.
Let's see what hand the President is drawing to, now that the other players have not folded.
take a look at the FR poll...
I've learned one thing on FR since the Miers nomination. Nominated or not, I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole with most of the posters on this forum....
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