Team Miers on life support

Based on leaks coming from within the ranks, as reported by Byron York at NRO, there is major demoralization, verging on total paralysis, among the people shepherding the Harrier Miers nomination. It seems her visits with senators have gone so badly that her handlers are thinking of canceling the visits altogether, freeing up her time for a crash course in constitutional law. And they have fired all the weapons in their arsenal. Now that they’ve exhausted such high-powered arguments as, “She’s a lovely and helpful woman,” “She’s an evangelical Christian,” “Her critics are sexists and elitists,” and (my favorite) “We trust the president,” it appears they have no arguments left. One guesses that just two factors are preventing a withdrawal of the nomination at this point (which also happen to be the two main factors responsible for the nomination): President Bush’s small-minded stubbornness and resentment of conservatives; and Miers’s conviction that Bush is the most brilliant man she’s ever known, so, if he picked her, she must be qualified.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 20, 2005 04:44 PM | Send