Miers withdraws her Supreme Court nomination!

Great Debates
1

I don’t think there’s a thread on this yet, my apologies if I’m wrong.

Harriet Miers has just withdrawn herself from consideration for the Supreme Court, ostensibly because the confirmation committee was demanding information that would compromise “a president’s ability to receive candid counsel.”

I’m just glad that the slight chance of her confirmation has been removed, and that Bush realizes he can’t just nominate someone based on their religion and association with his administration. Granted, I’m not likely to be a fan of whoever he chooses instead of Miers, but at least he’ll be forced to find someone who’s qualified.

2

It’s about time… took her long enough.

3

Now all we need today is an indictment of Karl Rove!

4

I feel a little bit sorry for her. Perhaps in time it will sound like a bigger fig leaf than it does now.

5

Is it such happy news that Bush caved to the Ultra-wingers? I suspect the next nominee will approve of clinic bombings.

6

You do realize that now he will nominate a true right-wing nutbar, and explain to the public that “Lord knows I tried to nominate a woman of moderate views, but look what happened there…”?

Anyone want to guess who the right-wing nutbar candidate will be?

7

Poor Sandra - by now she must be thinking she’ll be chained to the bench forever.

8

Long overdue for a nomination that should never have been made. But she did make for a great parody last night on Jay Leno with Gilbert Gottfried playing Harriet.

9

I think this news is sad. For the reasons stated in the two posts below:

10

Yep. The Dems better start warming up the nuclear option, because the Right won’t be satisfied with anyone more liberal than Limbaugh. This is going to get ugly, real fast.

11

The Pubbies have to find one of their own who isn’t under indictment to lead the fight for the next confirmation. Could be tough.

12

Be patient. Tomorrow maybe.

13

Left wing or right wing, she was unqualified for the position. The country is not served by having an unqualified candidate on the Supreme Court, no matter how closely that person’s ideology tracks to your own.

Besides, she already had conservative leanings, and little experience with the kind of debate she would encounter on the court. Confirming her would have been tantamount to giving Scalia a third vote.

14

You would rather have a completely unqualified Justice whose beliefs are a mystery? Oh, except that she’s a religious fundamentalist. Yeah, that sounds good.

15

I don’t know about that. The scalded cat fears the flames, and all that. I think you’re more likely to get an unexceptionable middle-of-the-roader whose biggest downside is a lack of stature.

16

Now that the ultrawingers know they have Bush pussy-whipped, they’ll go nuts until they get their clinic bomber in judicial robes candidate.

17

Sal, no offense, but what are you smoking? Can I have some?

18

I was sort of figuring Miers would vote along biblical lines… not happy about that. I don’t think Bush has enough political juice now to nominate a hard right winger. Crossing my fingers for someone more moderate.

19

I don’t believe it for a minute. They have nowhere near the influence over the guy that they (and others) think they do. The big-business interests (incarnated by Cheney) of whom Bush is a lackey have no interest in having a clinic bomber on the bench. Hence Roberts, and hence Miers – both were a mere hand-wave to the religious right. Miers not very convincingly, obviously.

20

There’s not much of a debate yet in this thread, and there’s already a recently-bumped thread on Mier’s nomination in GD, but that thread is multi-paged and doesn’t explicitly deal with the withdrawal, so I’m going to kick this over to GD. Political threads tend to be better-suited for GD, anyway.