Insiders see hint of Miers pullout
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.
https://washingtontimes.com/national/20051021-112953-8355r.htm
What Went Wrong: Lessons the White House should learn from the Miers debacle – John Fund
Three approaches in particular have alienated many people who are vital to Ms. Miers’ confirmation: Intimidation and arm-twisting. Many longtime supporters of President Bush have been startled to get phone calls from allies of the president strongly implying that a failure to support Ms. Miers will be unhealthy to their political future. Rewriting the history of Ms. Miers’s selection. After political pushback by conservatives became clear, the White House apparently engaged in spurious spin to explain the logic of the selection. A totally failed White House effort to explain and build support for the nomination. Assuming Ms. Miers was the only potential nominee the White House inner circle could agree on, it is remarkable how poor a job they have done in providing even the most basic information about her.
The damage to his relations with his conservative base would blow over quickly if Mr. Bush were to quickly name a well-qualified nominee who was not a sphinx when it came to judicial philosophy. Perhaps this time he might even expand the talent pool to include—gasp—men.
https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110007448
Conservatives Launch ‘Withdraw Miers’ Website
Groups including the Center for a Just Society, Fidelis, Eagle Forum, and ConservativeHQ announced Monday that they have launched a WithdrawMiers website, which is part of a “multi-pronged campaign,” they said. The website says it will serve as a clearinghouse for information related to the nomination—along with tools to help people contact U.S. senators and the White House “to express the shared belief that Ms. Miers’ nomination should be withdrawn.” Ken Connor, a former president of the Family Research Council who now serves as board chairman for the Center for a Just Society, said there is no “objective evidence” so far that Miers holds a judicial philosophy like that of conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
The coalition behind WithdrawMiers.org said Miers’ suitability for the Supreme Court is increasingly in doubt, given questions about her grasp of and commitment to the Constitution.
https://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=Culturearchive200510CUL20051024b.html
Bushies feeling the boss’ wrath – Prez’s anger growing in hard times – pals
Facing the darkest days of his presidency, President Bush is frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter, his associates say.
https://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/358714p-305660c.html
Senators say Bush’s Supreme Court nominee lacks votes
“I think, if you were to hold the vote today, she would not get a majority, either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor,” said Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show Sunday. “I think you have concern on these three areas—qualification, independence, judicial philosophy—by people of both parties and all political stripes,” Schumer pointed out. Arlen Specter, Republican chairman of the committee, confirmed the votes were not there at this time, and Miers would have to perform persuasively during the hearings to win over lawmakers.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/24/051024053926.v32ynryo.html
Miers defenders miss the mark – George Will
Such is the perfect perversity of the nomination of Harriet Miers, it discredits, and even degrades, all who toil at justifying it. Many of their justifications cannot be dignified as arguments
https://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/georgewill/2005/10/23/172485.html
The Miers nomination pits a Swift Boat author against a Bush National Guard detractor—in reverse.
The politics of the Harriet Miers nomination are getting stranger as attention turns toward Ms. Miers’s tenure as head of the Texas Lottery Commission.
https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110007431Â(Link missing for this one in FridayÂMiers Update)