October 27, 2005

Harriet Miers- Exit Stage Right

Well, did we not predict this? In this space a few weeks ago, we talked about this scenario of Harriet Miers withdrawing, and now it has happened. A couple observations: This really seems like the best move for the White House at this point. Miers looks like the constitutional hero as she preserves executive privilege as it pertains to documents that the Senate wants and the White House won’t release. That gives the President the out he needed.

Listen, there is still egg on the face here, but this isn’t the first time a Supreme Court nominee has withdrawn. Having said that, this is the first time conservatives have turned on a President like this regarding a nominee. You know conservative activists are doing cartwheels today. This is a clear victory for them. They put enough pressure on Senators and then the grassroots turned up the heat and that was the end of that. A Senate aide on the judiciary committee told me that this nomination from the beginning was a serious miscalculation by the White House, that they totally underestimated the conservatives reaction on this.

Now as to the future, what is next? My sources are all telling me that an announcement on a new nominee will happen sooner rather than later, and they all expect that this time around the President will nominate a true hard line conservative judge with a judicial record. Does that mean Janice Rogers Brown? Pricilla Owen? Oh-boy…if that’s the case, get ready for a fight, and as they say in sports: Game on!

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