We have a very deep bench of conservative jurists for Bush to choose from. That's what made his nomination of Miers so inexplicable. As you correctly stated, he does not have to turn this into a knock-down, drag-out fight with the moderates and liberals to get a good candidate confirmed. I find it disturbing that there are so many bomb-throwers here that want him to stick his thumbs in the eyes of our opponents just for the sake of doing it.
It's about the fight, TbV. I've seen it dozens of times in the past three weeks.
No matter if the candidate actually gets ON the Court. As long as there's blood on the floor with the Democrats, there's happiness and sunshine in the land.