Bush pick for high court outrages conservatives

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush on Monday
nominated White House insider Harriet Miers for a Supreme Court
vacancy, triggering outrage from conservatives who questioned
whether she would uphold their political views.

Bush chose Miers, a lawyer but not a judge whose opinions
on key issues likely to come before the high court are largely
unknown, to replace the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor.

Conservatives who formed the bedrock foundation of Bush’s
re-election last November immediately protested the nomination
as a betrayal of his campaign promise to pick conservative
judges, pointing to her past campaign donations to Democrats.

Miers, 60, a longtime ally of Bush’s going back to his days
as Texas governor and currently White House counsel, would be
the third woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court if confirmed
by the U.S. Senate. O’Connor was the first and Ruth Bader
Ginsburg has been there since 1993.

“I believe that senators of both parties will find that
Harriet Miers’ talent, experience and judicial philosophy make
her a superb choice to safeguard the constitutional liberties
and equality of all Americans,” Bush said in a hastily arranged
Oval Office ceremony with Miers.

O’Connor, a moderate conservative, was the key swing vote
on a number of 5-4 decisions on the closely divided Supreme
Court. Democrats said much was unknown about Miers and that she
would undergo intense scrutiny by the Senate.

The White House noted some Democrats had urged Bush to
consider the Dallas-born Miers but would give no names. One of
those, however, was Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada
Democrat.

“I like Harriet Miers,” said Reid, who had voted against
John Roberts as U.S. chief justice in Roberts’ confirmation
vote last week. “In my view, the Supreme Court would benefit
from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a
practicing lawyer.”

But some conservatives expressed concern that Bush had
missed a historic opportunity to shift the balance of the court
in a clear way by picking someone in the same mold as
conservative justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

“It is very hard to avoid the conclusion that President
Bush flinched from a fight on constitutional philosophy. Miers
is undoubtedly a decent and competent person. But her selection
will unavoidably be judged as reflecting a combination of
cronyism and capitulation on the part of the president,” said
William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard magazine.

Manny Miranda, head of a conservative coalition called The
Third Branch Conference, said Miers was “the most unqualified
choice” for the high court since Lyndon Johnson tried to make
Abe Fortas chief justice in 1968.

“I was hoping that the president would keep his campaign
promise. He said he would name someone like Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas. We thought he meant someone with a clear
judicial record on particular issues,” Miranda said.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn urged conservatives not
to jump to conclusions and not to prejudge her.

Records show Miers has given money over the years to both
Republicans and Democrats, including $1,000 to Democrat Al
Gore’s presidential campaign in 1988.

In 1987 she gave $1,000 to former Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.
Bentsen was the Democratic vice presidential nominee who ran
against Bush’s father in 1988.

In more recent years, Miers has regularly contributed to
Republicans such as Bush.

MAINSTREAM NOMINEE?

Democrats were largely measured in their reaction.

New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said Democrats
would push for documents on her and would pressure her to
answer questions in order to get a sense of her judicial
philosophy. “There’s hope that Harriet Miers is a mainstream
nominee,” he said.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, top Democrat on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, said Miers has been a Bush loyalist and
that “it is important to know whether she would enter this key
post with the judicial independence necessary when the Supreme
Court considers issues of interest to this administration.”

Democrats were frustrated when the conservative Roberts,
during his confirmation hearings, refused to comment on cases
and issues that he might have to rule on.

It was the second time Bush filled a key government
position with a person involved in the search process. In 2000
Dick Cheney had led Bush’s search for a vice presidential
candidate and ended up with the job. Miers had been on the
search committee to find a replacement for O’Connor.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush met with
her four times, on September 21, 28 and 29 and on Sunday night,
when he offered her the job over dinner in the White House
residence.

She was among six women in a group of 12 to 15 candidates
considered for the position, said McClellan.

Bush credited Miers with breaking down barriers to women in
the Texas legal profession, becoming the first woman to head
her Dallas law firm, the first woman president of the Dallas
Bar Association and the first woman elected president of the
state bar of Texas.

He called on the Senate to conduct her confirmation
hearings with “the same respect and civility” granted Roberts,
who was in place on Monday for the opening of the Supreme
Court’s new term.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican,
said he hoped to Senate would vote on her by the Thanksgiving
holiday November 24.

Bush said Miers would not legislate from the bench and
would strictly interpret the Constitution, his code language
for a conservative philosophy.

Miers said if confirmed she would work to help ensure the
courts “meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and
the Constitution.”

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Tabassum Zakaria
and Adam Entous)