We could be seeing the beginning of the end of the Miers nomination:
The White House has begun making contingency plans for the withdrawal of Harriet Miers as President Bush’s choice to fill a seat on the Supreme Court, conservative sources said yesterday.
“White House senior staff are starting to ask outside people, saying, ‘We’re not discussing pulling out her nomination, but if we were to, do you have any advice as to how we should do it?’ ” a conservative Republican with ties to the White House told The Washington Times.
The White House denied making such calls.
“Absolutely not true,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
But the conservative political consultant said that he had received such a query from Sara Taylor, director of the Office of White House Political Affairs.
Miss Taylor denied making any such calls.
A second Republican, who is the leader of a conservative interest group and has ties to the White House, confirmed that calls are being made to a select group of conservative activists who are not employed by the government.
“The political people in the White House are very worried about how she will do in the hearings,” the second conservative leader said. “I think they have finally awakened.”
The story presents an interesting problem as to who to believe- the White House, or the Washington Times?
At any rate, if Miers does withdraw, how does Bush stand up and introduce her successor as the ‘most qualified’ person for the job? Senator Cornyn is hanging tough, though:
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a former judge, took exception on Friday to comments by Senator Arlen Specter, the committee chairman, that Harriet E. Miers, the Supreme Court nominee, needed a “crash course on constitutional law.”
Mr. Cornyn, on Capitol Hill with a group of lawyers from Texas who support her confirmation, said, “I personally find that not only false but condescending and really inappropriate.”
He did not name Mr. Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, but referred to “this myth that some have propagated about this nominee that somehow she needs to take time off to cram, to get prepared or to essentially take Constitutional Law 101.”
Heh.
Another Jeff
You do realize that for most of your left-leaning readers, they would prefer an option of “none of the above” when given those two choices, don’t you?
ppGaz
I think that Ms. Miers is doing a heckuva job.
If I am right, and the Spuds stick to their rhythm, she’ll be gone within 14 days.
yet another jeff
I wonder who is behind door #2? The Bushes have have a bit of a petty and vindictive streak…there will be payback coming for those that opposed. It’s not like Bush to withdraw a nomination, instead just bringing people back time after time after time. WaPo is right about what the strategy should be, and there may be White House officials making the calls, I’m sure there are, but we must take into consideration the W factor.
ppGaz
In a vacuum, maybe. But you are about to witness a complete deflation of their power balloon. Recovering from the Miers embarassment will be the least … really, the very least … of their worries. The shocking story of WHIG and Plamegate and the rebukes of senior statesmen on the right against these morons is about to consume the bandwidth.
In order to exact payback, you need to have friends. The Bush administration is about to find itself with no friends.
Tim F
When the people who stand up against you constitute the majority of your own party, “payback” will be a precious commodity. It’s much more likely that the moderate and reasonable Republicans who’ve been systematically theratened, intimidated and bullied by the current leadership will use the current troubles as an opportunity to exact some payback of their own.
Speaking of which, I hear next week’s New Yorker will have some real zingers from poppy Bush’s inner circle. One can understand how no criticism of Bush from any leftwing source will ever, under any circumstances hold the least bit of water. They’re leftwingers after all. It’s this growing consensus on the right that Bush did every damned thing wrong that makes you maybe start to wonder.
ppGaz
In a few months, when people on the right are wringing their hands and wondering how it all went so horribly wrong, they can come back here and read the blurb I blockquoted here. There’s your answer. Governing as if half of their own country doesn’t matter …. that is what got the Bushmonkeys and the Spuds to the edge of cliff that they are about to take a dive over.
I don’t follow everyone’s slants around here, no offense … I don’t know if your blurb is serious or not. If it’s a DougJ type spoof, fine. Either way, though, it represents an actual mindset out there … a toxic one, and one which contains the seeds of downfall. Here’s a president that gained office by getting fewer total votes than his opponent, acting as if his frat-boy approach to the world is now the be-all and end-all, and opponents be damned.
To quote, again, today’s catch word from John: Unbelievable! May these ridiculous assholes get all that they so richly deserve.
Zifnab
Bush and his cronies set the rules to the game a long time back. You can’t critisize the Republican party unless you’re in it. Otherwise it’s just a he-said/she-said debate. And if you critisize the party, you’re no longer a party member. The only way for such a defense to fail is if the system digests the GOP from the inside out. Which it has.
Funny that.
Tim F
ppGaz,
It’s satire delivered straight. It surprises me that you don’t know where I stand.
ppGaz
.
Except for a few loons on the right like Darrell, I tend to read posts and pay little attention to who wrote them. Satire and tongue-cheek stuff often get missed by me. And then you have DougJ who changes handles and voices ten times a day. He nets me almost every time.
Don’t take it personally. I apologize for any insult caused by this tendency. Feel free to hit me with a two-by-four as required.
Otto Man
I wonder why Cornyn is so firmly in her corner. Maybe she’s given him secret assurances that she will stand tall against the threat of man-on-box-turtle sex that so consumes him.
Brad R.
The story presents an interesting problem as to who to believe- the White House, or the Washington Times?
Jeez, do I have to choose?
Otto Man
That’s a tough one. Bush’s White House or the Moonie Times….
Do I side with the conservative propaganda outfit whose members regard their leader with a cult-like obsession?
Or do I go with the Moonie Times?
Pb
Ah, Cornyn. Still heading up the Coalition of the Shillin’, and lookin’ for that long-lost SCOTUS appointment. Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame. But really, it’s his own damn fault.
Slide
The Bushies may be a tad busy working on their defense to be thiking much about payback.
Slide
George Will writes about the Miers nomination again. Ouch. A few snippets:
She’s done.
ppGaz
Wow. That Will blurb is …. cold. And accurate.
I’ve bashed Will for years, considering him a GOP whore without an ounce of intellectual integrity; an elitist of the highest order.
Well, I must say, when he’s right, he’s really right.
Let’s hope that he focusses his lightbeam on the WHIG/Plame debacle about to unleash itself upon punditry. Let’s hope that he calls some spades, spades. Will is certainly bright enough to realize that the Bushmonkeys are ridiculous pretenders to leadership … the question is, will he have the nuggets to just say so when the case unfolds?
Vladi G
Bush will withdraw the nomination and immediately appoint someone even less qualified than Miers. Two weeks later, that nomination will be withdrawn, and replaced someone even LESS qualified. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Look, they’re running out of things with which to distract the news media and the public away from DeLay/Fitzmas/Abramoff/Iraq/Drownie/etc. The only tool they have is the SCOTUS nomination. If they use up that last chit, they’ve got nothing left. But if you keep appointing people destined to fail, you can re-use that chit over and over and over again. It’s really quit brilliant.
Vladi G
Umm, make that **quite** brilliant, which I am obviously not.
Steve S
Does the Weekly World News have anything to say about this?
I found their National Brothel Chain article to be much more credible than anything coming from the Moonie Times or Bush’s mouth.
Steve S
Maybe Harriet Miers is Bat Boy?
BillS
I’ve been conflicted about this whole affair and it’s not getting any better. Should I sit back and enjoy the jackals tearing apart one their own? Or, should I wish that Bush nominate someone who can cleverly disguise their facist tendencies with a smooth line of constitutional blather?
Overall, I’m pulling for Harrient. At least she’s older than the alternatives. A just God might call her to her eternal punishment sooner than any of the others.
It’s a tough call but I have the precedent-setting vote of 2000 and 2004 when considering whether Americans really want competence.
BillS
Vladi G, ordinarily I’d agree with your assumptions. However, right now GWB needs an ignorant, unprincipled crony who places loyalty to Bush above loyalty to the country.
He just can’t be absolutely positive that one of the other lackeys of the rightwing would rule in favor of, say, GWB pardoning himself.
Wait, there’s always Barney.
BillS
Their master’s voice.
VictorRay
I hope that Miers is indeed withdrawn. Ideology aside, she just isn’t qualified.
BillS
Miers’ lack of qualification could be a positive, overall. If the other justices view her as a cipher then she won’t be in a position to craft influential arguments.
In essence, she’ll just be a voting non-entity.