Miers Withdraws

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court this morning:

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said. "Harriet Miers's decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers -- and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her."

But politics also played a role: Bush's conservative backers had doubts about her ideological purity, and Democrats had little incentive to help the nominee or the embattled GOP president.

Ideological purity. I love that phrase. Sieg Heil anyone?

Seriously -- would the radical right wing religious extremists have supported Miers if she were instead some hack attorney who specialized in representing people who bombed Planned Parenthood clinics and/or folks who murdered abortion-performing doctors, and who spent her spare time away from her law practice protesting in front of abortion clinics? Of course they would have supported her. These people don't care about the overall quality of the nominee -- they care about ideological purity.

Word is that Bush is one pissed-off dude these days, what with this Miers debacle and the Twelve Days of Fitztivus and all that. What I would love to see is Bush react angrily to the right-wing opposition to Miers and pick someone with impeccable credentials but who is clearly a moderate, i.e., someone who would get all the Democratic senators on his or her side as well as all the moderate Republicans in the Senate. Such a nominee might not get a floor vote, but I'd still love to see all the drama anyway.

Another thing I'd like to see is Miers come out and announce that she would have voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. I have the suspicion that she would have indeed voted that way had she been confirmed and had the opportunity arisen.

But what will probably happen is that Bush will bend to political pressure from the extreme right and nominate someone like Janice Rogers Brown. That would also be fine with me because it would light a fire under the Democrats and force Bush to engage in a major political battle at a time when the White House will probably be in turmoil from the fallout caused by the Fitztivus indictments.

One last thought -- why announce this Miers withdrawal today? Does the Bush Regime think that the indictments will be handed down today? It appears to me that Fitzgerald will announce his indictments tomorrow, meaning that tomorrow would have been a more politically effective time to announce Miers's withdrawal and thus pull some coverage away from the TreasonGate story.