Bye Bye Miers
The problem that the powerlineblog shows is that the right-wing will not blindly trust President Bush's word on the "conservativeness" of the next nominee--they will want answers. Thus the next nominee will probably come under fire from both Republicans and Democrats, as they will both press the nominee to answer questions that Roberts was able to avoid answering. One thing for sue is that the next confirmation hearing will likely be must see TV.A lot of conservative pundits are feeling triumphant today, but there are millions of rank and file Republicans who supported the Miers nomination, many of whom--including many dyed in the wool conservatives--believed, rightly or wrongly, that the criticism of Miers from the right was arrogant and elitist. Miers was a poor choice for a number of reasons, not least because her nomination needlessly divided the party.
There are lots of sighs of relief this morning, and understandably so; but they're premature, I think. Who knows who the next nominee might be? The beginning of the Miers problem was that President Bush committed to naming a woman before he had a woman lined up for the job. We know that he chose Miers only after "several" women turned him down. We don't know how many said no, or who they were; so at this point, no one knows who is left in the "woman" pool. I really hope that at this point, Bush forgets about diversity and nominates the best person for the job. But is there any reason to assume that he will do so?
