Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Miers Withdrawal is a Major Political Defeat

I was blown over by the news this morning. This is a major political defeat for the president. Virtually every court watcher and Senate observer believed that if Bush stuck to his guns, the Republicans in the Senate would not hand their own C-in-C a massive defeat. He, and I mean by "he" Karl Rove, must have had no stomach for a fight. Why? The Plame-Leak CIA Grand Jury. That's right: after tomorrow's expected announcement of indictments, Bush and Rove may have found the Republican senators unwilling to go to the mat for him, or at least demanding, in return, a heavy price that he would have to pay (such as distancing himself from Rove, or even Cheney). Bush cannot be fighting the conservatives in his own party when he needs their support to call the indictments (a la Delay) "politically motivated." Since he can't fire the grand jury, he fired his other liability: Miers. Bush now has a carrot to offer his party for their support when his administration gets slammed by the grand jury: a nominee to their liking, a right-wing ideologue like Luttig, for example (the man who recently wrote that in the perman ent war against terrorism, there can be no limitations on the president's ability to lock up someone indefinitely, without trial, whom he accuses of being a member of Al Qaeda, including American citizens apprehended on American soil, i.e., you and me).

Personally, I think Miers should have refused to withdraw her nomination. She should have been self-interested and told W that he should be loyal to her, no matter what, as she had been to him all along. He said she was the "best qualified" person for the job, and she could have, and should have, made him stuck by it. In the end, I still believe that the Senate Republicans would not have dared defeat her nomination, and she would be on the court. If Miers remained the nominee, they would have confirmed her, and exacted as their price that Bush rid himself of the Plame Leak Scandal by ditching Scooter and Karl. And I think Bush would not have dared withdraw Miers against her will, because that would be even a graver defeat. In other words, Miers could have forced Bush to pick her over Rove. I'm sorry she didn't, for her sake.

FYI, a close relative in Dallas Miers fairly well, and they used to belong to a church together in the 1980s. According to this source, Miers helped out with a "no questions asked" STD clinic run by that church. Now she attends a more evangelical/fundamentalist church. But this relative says that Miers is every bit as intelligent and nice as we have been led to believe by Harry Reid. All moot now.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But you know what? For once the Democrats have their act together. They're actually working in unison, pushing the message that the wingnuts of the Republican party killed this nomination. This message is making its way into the media. Whether that's true or not, it helps set the stage for opposing a candidate like Luttig. Good for them! 

// posted by Bell Curve

Anonymous said...

The amazing thing is, all the Democrats want is someone who is not Bork and all the Republicans want is someone who is not Souter. How hard can that be? 

// posted by Bell Curve

Anonymous said...

I disagree with LTG that Meirs wanted the nomination. I don't think that was ever serious. How could it have been with such a poor response to the Questionnaire that she sent over? And I don't think her nomination was guaranteed by a long shot. Nor am I surprised that her nomination was pulled. I was waiting for that because of the tone of some media reports last week. The question was one of timing. I do agree that there is probably a link with the Rove indictments. I wondered in my post this morning if they were hoping to smother Rove reports. If that was the case, it failed. Instead they seemed to have highlighted the Rove story instead.

Is it me, or is anyone else thinking Watergate analogies whereby some small side show suddenly consumes an administration?

 

// posted by USWest

Anonymous said...

This is not so much a defeat for Bush but a massive victory for the Theocratic Right. Just to give you folks an idea how scary that is, they think Bush sold out!

Also its not that the Republicans want "not Souter." They want a clone of Thomas (the only justice to rule in that the President had unlimited power with regard to the Guantanamo detainees case). They will "settle" for a Rhenquist clone. They think a justice like Rhenquist is a compromise.

This will be a bitter drag out nasty fight and while I'm glad the Democrats didn't spend a penny of their "political capital," I'm concerned that the Religious is feeling their oats right now and may push Bush to go way out to the right. 

// posted by Raised By Republicans

Dr. Strangelove said...

US West suggests that Miers nomination was never serious, or that she did not want it. I cannot agree. I think it was very serious and she wanted it very much.

Frist called Bush last night to tell him they didn't have the votes--whether this was in the full Senate or on the Judiciary Committee is unclear. I am surprised Bush did not go to the mat for her.

But maybe he really needs a lawyer right now...

Anonymous said...

Good point, Strangelove. Maybe Bush does need a good lawyer! 

// posted by USWest