What Went Wrong - Lessons the White House should learn from the Miers debacle.

OpinionJournal.com ^ | October 24, 2005 | John Fund

[gpapa]

Monday, October 24, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

President Bush has returned from a weekend in Camp David, where much of the discussion centered on the beleaguered nomination of Harriet Miers. While the president is determined to press forward, the prognosis he received was grim. Her visits with senators have gone poorly. Her written answers to questions from the Senate were sent back as if they were incomplete homework. The nominee herself has stumbled frequently in the tutorials in which government lawyers are grilling her in preparation for her Nov. 7 hearings.

[decal]

Great, another Harriet Miers thread...

[SmoothTalker]

The lesson of this and Mike Brown-gate is to appoint the best man or woman for every job, not just your buddies.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

BUMP

[flashbunny]

Know-nothing john fund alert...

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Mr. Rath didn't return my calls, and local sources say he is laying low now that reporters have uncovered his key role in pushing the nomination of David Souter in 1990. "It was Rath and [then-Sen. Warren] Rudman who convinced [then White House chief of staff] John Sununu to back Souter," recalls Gordon Humphrey, a former U.S. senator from the Granite State who at the time supported Judge Souter as a member of the Judiciary Committee. The profound disappointment conservatives experienced when Justice Souter, another stealth nominee, veered left is a major reason for the resistance to Harriet Miers.

Another reason for conservative suspicion is that it was Mr. Card, a former moderate Massachusetts state legislator, who pushed the Miers choice. "This is something that Andy and the president cooked up," a White House adviser told Time magazine. "Andy knew it would appeal to the president because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said.

[Soul Seeker]

Mr. Rath didn't return my calls, and local sources say he is laying low now that reporters have uncovered his key role in pushing the nomination of David Souter in 1990. "It was Rath and [then-Sen. Warren] Rudman who convinced [then White House chief of staff] John Sununu to back Souter," recalls Gordon Humphrey, a former U.S. senator from the Granite State who at the time supported Judge Souter as a member of the Judiciary Committee.......

Another reason for conservative suspicion is that it was Mr. Card, a former moderate Massachusetts state legislator, who pushed the Miers choice. "This is something that Andy and the president cooked up," a White House adviser told Time magazine. "Andy knew it would appeal to the president because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." Conservatives still recall that in the White House of the first President Bush, Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu, the prime backer of Judge Souter. Mr. Card told me on Friday that "it would be a complete exaggeration to say I played a role in the Souter selection. I merely supported his nomination as I did all presidential appointments."

Ed Rollins, the GOP consultant who at the time headed the House Republican Campaign Committee and who was Mr. Card's boss in the Reagan White House, remembers it differently. "Of course Andy played a role," he told me. "He was Sununu's top aide." Two other aides who served with Mr. Card in the White House told me he was an enthusiastic backer of the Souter selection. "Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer," one said.

Wonderful. The one who pushed Souter is sent to arm twist conservative Senators, and now a new detail I was unaware of.... Mr. Card was deputy chief of staff to Mr. Sununu. It just keeps getting better.

[flashbunny]

"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. "The message in Texas is, if you aren't for this nominee, you are against the president," one conservative leader in that state told me. The pressure has led to more resentment than results."

Amazing who the president will and won't lean on:

Will lean on / attack:

1. Conservative politicians
2. Conservative media / pundits
3. Conservative Bloggers

Will not lean on / attack

1. RINOs
2. Democrats
3. The mainstream media.

What's that "he values loyalty" thing I keep hearing about?

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Guess who once held the job Harriet Miers used to occupy, before being elevated to White House Counsel?

That's right, Richard Darman!

Under Bush 41.

Everything Old Is New Again

[LibertarianInExile]

Ah, more sexism and elitism from an ignorant extortionizing Donner Party conservative. Only evil can come of this vicious opposition to the all-holy President and his apostle Miers--after all, the President might appoint Gonzales next! But that would be an exception to all his prior uberconservative appointments, and that's not extortion like you evil Buchananite Libertarian fringe extremist types are trying by saying you won't vote for RINOs in 2006 like we tell you to. Remember, you have to vote for them like we say so we can get conservative judges in!

/moonbot channelling

[decal]

Ho hum.

[Soul Seeker]

BTW, watching Meet The Press today and something interesting stood out in Allen's interview. He mentioned Karen Williams. Praised her, cited her record.

A few weeks ago Lindsey mentioned her name, now Allen? Williams is generally considered acceptable to conservatives but she isn't on the "rock star" list conservatives use to make a point. Brown, Luttig, etc.. Unusual two different Republicans make a point to mention her name, then build the case for her. Especially to the extent Allen did this morning.

I sense a trial balloon. My only question is whether this is from the Senators themselves trying to urge the president to pick Williams, or if they've been given the go ahead (despite W.H. denials) to test her name on us.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

The lesson of this and Mike Brown-gate is to appoint the best man or woman for every job, not just your buddies.

That point bears repeating.

[Atchafalaya]

Yeah, you 'd think he'd learn from the first term effups!!

[SupplySider]

My only worry now is who the president will appoint after Ms Meirs goes down.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Hopefully, it's the latter.

Williams was part of the lower court decision overturning Miranda, and is rock-solid on almost every issue.

Almost as good as Harvey Wilkinson; plus she's a woman!

And married to a big-shot Democrat down in South Carolina.

[flashbunny]

Sorry, you really screwed that one up.

In order to channel a 'moonbot', you have to CAPITALIZE random WORDS to give emphasis TO seemingly unimportant THINGS.

Oh, and use a bunch OF exclamation points!!!!

Try to REMEMBER that next time!!!!

;)

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Me too.

[wigswest]

While I am deeply troubled by the Miers nomination, and would wish for a candidate who's been proven to fight for judicial conservatism "in the trenches", this statement from the article give me pause:

When Douglas Ginsburg asked to have his nomination to the Supreme Court pulled in 1987 after allegations he had used marijuana, Ronald Reagan won unanimous confirmation in a Democratic Senate for Anthony Kennedy, then a judge with a decade-long conservative track record on a federal appellate court.

Please, someone convince me we aren't facing the possibility of losing as big as we did with Kennedy in this crapshoot, should we get our wish for a proven judicial conservative.

[counterpunch]

"Now that he's brought us Miers we worry that 15 years later Andy is playing the role of a Serial Souterizer,"

LOL!
What's sitting on Bush's desk in the Oval Office right now:

Things To Do
    Withdraw Miers nomination
    Nominate Janice Rogers Brown
    Fire Andy Card

Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, both of whom won tough confirmation battles for seats on appellate courts only this spring, were nixed by other GOP Senators as too tough a battle for the high court.

That's how you know one of these two is the right choice... if Republicans want to win in 2006, that is.