My conclusion is: Bush supporters who were angry over Miers should have waited. That's the bottom line. Rather than bellow that Miers isn't qualified and won't turn the Court to the right, they should have given her a chance to prove her conservatism at the hearings. They owed Bush at least that much. Of course it's not too late for Miers, in her testimony, to change their minds. But my fear is that the rift the Miers nomination opened between Bush and his (mostly conservative) followers will be slow to heal. It shouldn't have been this way.
First of all, it takes more than a couple of hearings in front of Senator Hearmetalk and Senator Blowhard to prove you are legal conservative. It takes years. Second of all, without an immediate uproar, this nomination may have sailed through without much of a fight from the Dims and then we'd be stuck with O'Connor Lite with no recourse. Lastly, Bush would have felt relieved that we didn't notice that he was breaking his promise and been a free agent to nominate whoever else worked closely with him for years and is a trusted advisor. We couldn't well complain then, after letting the cipher through, now could we?
