Posted on 10/11/2005 4:32:52 PM PDT by Cautor
From another blog site:
Is This The True Story Of Why The White House Picked Harriet Miers?
by Joe Gandelman
Was it a rushed nomination? Did Miers herself want more time? Are conservative White House staffers upset and up in arms?
Read this item on the conservative website Red State by Eric in full and you'll get the full picture from a writer who seems to have inside sources. Here's just a small taste:
Part of the Miers pick seems to be a confused process and a rush job, which adds credibility to the rumor of a last minute back out. But, the White House conservatives and outside parties all indicate that they were ignored. They were heard but not listened to. Several who talked to RedState insist that warning flags were given to Andrew Card and others, but that those warning were ignored and Card pushed the issue all the way to the President's desk.
One outside source who has a good ear to the ground tells me that the White House most likely has nothing else to offer in Miers' favor, but will just recycle previous sound bites. This same source bolsters what a White House staffer tells me, in that the vetting process was so poorly done that much of what is now coming out about Miers was unknown before her nomination.
The remaining questions are whether Republican Senators will force the White House to withdraw the Miers nomination and, if so, will the replacement be less favorable to conservatives.
That continues to be the key question: suppose Miers is withdrawn or withdraws? Then what? Do conservatives get what they want — the kind of nominee who proudly announces conservative principles and backs conservative stances? Does that mean an attempted filibuster? The nuclear option? And in any nuke war, there is fallout. The White House would re-energize its conservatives but what would be the consequences elsewhere to Bush's next three years and the GOP in general?
The GOP Senators have more options than the Democrat ones do in dealing with unfavorable SCOTUS picks. They can keep rejecting them until they get one they like - something the Dems cannot do unless the GOP lets them do it.
To suggest that the White House was rushed and unprepared for the most important thing Bush will do during his tenure is to suggest that this White House staff is totally dysfunctional.
Sure, who the hell wants to listen to a bunch of snarky, jerky ELITISTS, even if they're on the President's staff? [/bitter sarcasm]
Seriously, I've been hearing this scuttlebutt for a week: even "elite" members of Bush's White House staff hate this pick---not Miers personally, but her nomination.
Over here...
"To suggest that the White House was rushed and unprepared for the most important thing Bush will do during his tenure is to suggest that this White House staff is totally dysfunctional."
My thoughts exactly. In a second term, many of the best/brightest staff and principals depart the administration leaving holes in the operation. That's unfortunate because Bush has had to face a withering onslaught of big time issues: budget issues, social security reform, Iraq, Katrina, the Gang of 14 revolt, and now this. Maybe they are being overwhelmed.
Or that someone else at the White House has become totally dysfunctional.
"The GOP Senators have more options than the Democrat ones do in dealing with unfavorable SCOTUS picks. They can keep rejecting them until they get one they like - something the Dems cannot do unless the GOP lets them do it."
That's right. I think the issue for some Republicans as regards the Miers pick is whether they think the conservative base is so inflamed it could hurt them as well if they vote for her. If it looks like Bush is losing ground, then things could snowball on this nomination.
Something's likely going to come out before or during the hearings that will embarrass the hell out of the WH. That's why they're trying to rush this one through---Specter wants to hold hearings before month's end.
Senators will stand for re-election. The President will not. Thus the sensible route is to influence the Senators - or oppose them in the primaries if they cave to the administration.
Does the WH want yet another Donnybrook? This might be a last minute replacement nomination, but a "spite" nomination of a clearly liberal, pro-abort woman like some of the Bush acolytes are threatening if Miers is rejected will absolutely destroy the party at the polls next year, and in three years.
Just read this over at confirmthem.com where it is crossposted. Great comments too.
"Something's likely going to come out before or during the hearings that will embarrass the hell out of the WH. That's why they're trying to rush this one through---Specter wants to hold hearings before month's end."
I think you could be right. I can see it now. Senator blowhard asks "now, in that case of Plessy v. Ferguson" and Miers replies: "Come again."
Another rumor about the Miers nomination.
ping.
Thanks and welcome to the discussion. I posted this AM links to a lot of information on Miers that has begun to emerge. I imagine there are many reporters and oppo researchers going over it as we speak. When you're on city councils and lottery commissions, a lot of unsavory things get said and done. They may not be big, but they could be blown up and used against her.
With all the plausible deniability that is offered by unnamed sources, you do realize, don't you, that Eric can pretty much make up anything he wants to and spit it out?
It's happening right now. For some reason, Bush and his WH echo chamber have convinced themselves that the bloggers like Malkin and Podhoretz and the talk show hosts like Limbaugh---all staunchly loyal partisans of the President heretofore---who have come out publicly and criticized this nomination, don't have their ear to the ground and know nothing of grassroots sentiment because they're in their "elitist" ivory towers. That's a very dangerous, very foolish assumption to make---they have a far better sense of where the base is on this issue than cowed WH staff and sycophantic state party chairmen. Bush has to start mending the fences he's bulldozed during the last week----his effectiveness over the rest of his term really does depend on it, regardless of the fact that, as his supporters keep taunting, he no longer faces re-election.
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