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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-10-27

Be Careful What You Wish For

Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination for the Supreme Court.

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice Thursday in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism about her qualifications.

"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' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers -- and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her."

Two words leap to mind: Pyrrhic Victory.

I completely fail to see how this in any way helps the President, other than to get one thing off his plate for the moment. The Corner and Laura Ingraham may be happy, but it seems to me that this actually weakens the President.

You want a Justice Luttig? McConnell? Owens? Better be prepared to win confirmation over a filibuster.

And a filibuster based SOLELY ON JUDICIAL PHILOSOPHY. This is the can of worms that has been opened up by not only the opposition groups, but by Senators wanting to know what her "Judicial Philosophy" would be. That makes judicial philosophy fair game for the Left. And that makes it all but certain that a strong conservative jurist will face a filibuster, and I just don't see the caucus being able to hold together to break it.

I will have to admit to flagging enthusiasm for the Miers nomination, a nomination I was lukewarm about from the beginning. But for her--and the President--to have taken the beating she has in public for the last three weeks has been bad for the party, and it's only going to get harder from here.

Look, I'm pretty sure that we have the better argument about the role of the Court in American life, but winning that argument with the American people is different than winning that argument in the Senate. And, at that, we really haven't shown any ability to make a good argument through the media fog for about a year now.
Posted by: Michael / 10/27/2005 07:14:00 AM

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