Bush Caves

It may turn out that Pres. Bush is shrewd as a fox on his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, but I doubt it.

I did a quick scan of the conservative blogs at lunch (Michele Malkin has a thorough round-up) and the consensus is that Bush wasn't up for a fight with the Dems and picked a woman because she's a woman and picked a Texan because he's comfortable with her. :-(

This afternoon, Power Line is positing an even more depressing theory: that Bush was provided a list of "acceptable" candidates by the Dems and picked the best of what I'm sure was a bad lot. According to Power Line:

What did happen within 30 minutes of Bush's announcement was a press release by Harry Reid that included the statement, "I like Harriet Miers." It's hard to avoid the suspicion that Bush's nomination of Miers reflects some kind of deal with the Senate Democrats. Such as, the Dems gave Bush a list of candidates they would deem "acceptable" (pending Judiciary Committee hearings, of course), and Bush chose the best candidate he could off that list.

Is that what happened? I don't know, but the theory seems to fit the facts. Why would Bush accede to the Democrats rather than fight for another Roberts-type conservative? The only reason I can think of is that liberal Republicans in the Senate, starting with Arlen Specter, told him they wouldn't back him up if he replaced Sandra O'Connor with a strong conservative. There are enough RINOs in the Senate to make such a threat credible, I think.

This is pure speculation, but it is one scenario that seems to fit the facts as we know them so far.

What frosts me is that the Dems are going to trash whoever Bush nominates. They have to in order to appease the rabid anti-Bush wing of their party who are livid over the "free pass" given to John Roberts. If you're going to have a fight over your nominee, CHOOSE SOMEONE WORTH FIGHTING FOR!!

Finally, if this isn't despressing enough, keep in mind that John Roberts is not a "for sure" conservative. Remember his slim track record? Remember the concerns loudly exhorted by Ann Coulter that he could be another David Souter?

If Miers turns out to be an appeasement pick and Roberts turns out to be Souter-like, instead of making progress on the Supreme Court, we could actually lose ground. Argh!