[Bommer]

Good! Maybe at last Bush will get it into his head that we put him in office and to appoint judges we want, not what he wants.

[flashbunny]

ping

[beyond the sea]

First, withdraw the unfortunate nomination of Harriet Miers. Not only is there almost no enthusiasm for her nomination, I have never seen as much outright hostility and even anger at an appointment from a president's own party. Replace her with a highly qualified, full-blooded, proven conservative nominee.

Charles Krauthammer had a decent solution to this in a very recent article......... 'Saving Face'.

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/charleskrauthammer/2005/10/21/172176.html

[goldstategop]

I agree. The President should start afresh. Continuing with a doomed nomination is not a sign of strength but a sign of weakness. The President can afford to lose every one else but he can't afford to lose the base. Its time to cut his losses, especially with the Special Counsel's indictments looming on the horizon. Bush can decide to have three productive years left in office or see them go to waste. He wants a legacy, he can have one and its not going to be achieved with a bitterly divided party.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[SteveH]

+ =

[SteveH]

=

[DTogo]

I trust Bush as far as I can throw him across the border he still refuses to secure - 4 years after 9/11.

[Jaysun]

Off with her head.

[OldFriend]

Blankley's got a book to sell and his criticism is a sure way to get on all the talking head shows.

Perhaps when he gets out of the beltway and into the heart of America while signing his books, he'll find the real Americans don't have his pessimistic view of the future.

[TAdams8591]

"First, withdraw the unfortunate nomination of Harriet Miers. Not only is there almost no enthusiasm for her nomination, I have never seen as much outright hostility and even anger at an appointment from a president's own party. Replace her with a highly qualified, full-blooded, proven conservative nominee. (Any number of his appointments to the courts of appeal will do.)

Then he can have a principled fight between conservatives and liberals (a debate that should break in his favor at least 60 percent to 40 percent nationally on the judicial issues), rather than the current idiotically unuseful fight between blind presidential loyalists and sighted presidential loyalists."

Well said and good advice. I hope the President is smart enough to follow it.

[xzins]

no enthusiasm for Miers

I agree with that.

I've supported the president on her nomination from the beginning, but I've placed my hopes on the hearings bringing out the information needed to make a better decision.

"Waiting to get more info" is hardly an "enthusiastic" endorsement. So far, I'm OK with her resume, her pro-gun, and her pro-life positions. I'm not OK with her support of "proportional" affirmative action.

[gop_gene]

I saw on tv this morning how Bush was going to make yet another push for Harriet (she's giving a speech, or something . . . ). This is getting more and more ridiculous, not to mention pathetic, by the day. It's reminding me of when Al Gore remade himself over and over hoping he would eventually take.

[devane617]

"Mier-grane", "Mier-grane", "Mier-grane", headache! Pass the Oxy and Vodka!

[KC_Conspirator]

Just a year out from congressional elections, Republican congressmen and senators are in the process of making the practical judgment whether to distance themselves from the president to save their skins. I don't blame them. (After all, it's not as if he is currently championing their principles and policies domestically.)

This is because of his low approval rating, and the answer to the childish, sarcastic refrain "Oh Bush will never get re-elected".

[Pessimist]

"(After all, it's not as if he is currently championing their principles and policies domestically.)"

Does anyone really believe our congressmen even have principles or policies - other than to get reelected?

Along those lines, I expect the only thing they're watching is his popularity. Below a certain point, association with him becomes a liability.

So as the remainder of his term self destructs, they'll probably bail on him.

If the dems are smart (and admittedly that's a big "if") they'll run to center during the next election cycle; spout a few platitudes about "good government", fiscal sanity, lower defecits,etc. and clean up.

Guess this is all part of Bush's "brilliant strategy", huh?

[trubluolyguy]

Republican congressmen and senators are in the process of making the practical judgment whether to distance themselves from the president to save their skins. I don't blame them.

(After all, it's not as if he is currently championing their principles and policies domestically.)

---

Sure he is. Republican principles and policies...NOT conservative ones. Two different things.

[Constantine XIII]

It would be a shame if he couldn't get re-elected. :P

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

No kidding, W.

The people who worked so hard to put you in office want a fight. We want to drive leftists under their beds with fear, to trounce them soundly in political debate.

We aren't the spineless middlings in both houses that just want to get along with those who hate us.

Pick a judge that has a proved record of being a Constitutionalist and lets throw down when the left fights him or her.

[MarcusTulliusCicero]

In trying to think like a Miers supporter (sort of a contradiction in terms), it has finally occurred to me that this whole nomination is a brilliant piece of strategery requiring literally years of planning. It is January 2002 and President Bush is determined to fulfill his campaign promise to appoint Justices to the Supreme Court in the mold of Thomas and Scalia, but he doesn't think he can get one through the Senate. So, he calls the Vice President and has him ask the CIA to get to the bottom of these rumors that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger, KNOWING that the Democrat-infiltrated CIA would try to sabotage the intelligence by sending someone sympathetic to their views. Of course, now we know all about how Valerie Plame lobbied to send her husband to investigate these rumors. Then, when Wilson went public, he knew that loyalists in the Administration would want to try to point out Wilson's obvious Democrat sympathies by exposing his wife's status in the CIA and that it was simply a crony appointment (in this case, a BAD thing). He KNEW even at this early date that it would result in the appointment of a special prosecutor, namely Fitzgerald (who is rumored to be somewhat conservative) and that this prosecutor would become the darling of the Democrats and the media establishment.

Then, when the O'Connor seat opened, he appointed a well-qualified, nominally conservative judge named Roberts, knowing he would move him to Chief Justice when Rehnquist died. When, that actually happened he then tapped his dear friend Harriet (in this case, crony appointment equals GOOD thing!), knowing she would provoke his actual conservative base, since her only qualifications appear to be that she writes at an 8th grade level, is a heck of a bowler and likes M&Ms. Oh yeah....and she loves affirmative action, gay rights and one or two other liberal pet causes. He also realized that the special prosecutor would be wrapping up his investigation at this time and that one or two aides might wind up being indicted.

Now we get to the real brilliance of the plan. By this time support for Harriet has dwindled to about 12 people. So, he pulls the nomination and offers it to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald who, coincidentally lets the grand jury expire and issues no report other than that there was no underlying crime. Fitzgerald will be confirmed since conservatives will be relieved that they actually have a nominee somewhat to the right of Mao Tse-Tung and Democrats won't be able to object since they have been singing his praises for 2 years.

We really should have just trusted the President!

[longtermmemmory]

with the constant elite hang wringing and the desperation to only allow "judicial monestary" access, I doubt very much eve 10% of the population cares.

This is an inside the beltway tempest and the only people watching of the political "sports fans." Everyone else is busy working for a living.