President George W Bush's controversial nomination of his friend Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court was an act of "political tone deafness" that would harm the Republicans' election prospects, according to the leader of America's largest grassroots conservative organisation. David Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, gave his scathing assessment to The Sunday Telegraph as senior White House aides fought to stem the Republican revolt over Mr Bush's court choice. This weekend Robert Bork, an ultra-conservative judge who was himself the focus of a bitter Supreme Court nomination battle under the Reagan administration, became the latest in a...