Harriet Miers is to be commended for asking the president lastnight to withdrawl her name from consideratin for the SCOTUS. She could have perservered and gone through some blistering, and I would suspect, rather embarassing confirmation hearings. Ms. Miers saw the handwriting on the wall, especially with the recent negative comments of senators that she knew she needed on her side.
It was an awful nomination and Miers did not even approach having the stellar qualifications, and evidence of any substantial consideration of constitutional matters, that are absolutely imperative for a member of the SCOTUS. I was watching Justice Stephen Breyer on the Charlie Rose show lastnight, and it horrified me to think of Harriet Miers trying to go up against him in a constitutional argument.
It would have been a blistering fight for the Bush administration to get her confirmed, and had she been there would have been long lasting resentment against the president from his base, a base that he is going to need on his side and in the trenches with him, especially against a Democratic party that is becoming more unhinged than I had ever thought it could, and rapidly turning toward the model of the criminalization of political opponents.
Now let us hope that the president will conclude, and I suspect he will, that he must send up a SCOTUS nominee that has gravitas, that is constitutionally brilliant and that evidences a deep commitment to conservative principles, while not being a slave to them. Let us hope that the person that Mr. Bush sends up will not be someone that we must simply "trust him" on, but rather someone like John Roberts, who we will immediately recognize the brilliance of.
Harriet Miers did the right thing. I wish she had not accepted the nomination in the first place, but I thank her for getting out now and sparing the president even more unnecessary damage.
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Update: Hugh Hewitt writes
"She and the president deserved much better from his allies."
And we - who fought oh so hard for the president and GOT HIM ELECTED - deserved a whole lot better from him.
Hugh recommends McConnell, and then Luttig or Jones as the next nominee. Amen to that.
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How it happened:
"According to informed sources, this is how the last day of the Miers nomination played out. Yesterday morning, President Bush met with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, and others at the White House, where they discussed the problems facing the nomination. There were staff conversations between the majority leader's office and the White House throughout the day. There was a meeting in Dick Cheney's office in the afternoon, with the vice president and nomination strategists taking part, in which the fading support for the nomination was discussed. And then in the early evening, Frist had a phone conversation with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card in which Frist gave what's being called a frank assessment of the nomination's prospects. Not long afterward, a final decision was made, and Miers called the president at 8:30 p.m. to say she would withdraw, and the formal announcement was set for this morning."
