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Let's Hope Bush Learned From Miers Debacle

Posted on: Sunday, 30 October 2005, 12:00 CST

By Dan K. Thomasson Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON -- Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court was stupid in the first place, fraught with dangers that even the most politically unschooled could see a mile off.

Here was the president sending his personal attorney and one of his closest advisers into the crucible of Senate confirmation where disclosure of the advice she had given him over the years on major issues was sure to be demanded and refusal would bring almost certain defeat. These requests were made more viable despite claims of executive privilege by the lack of any judicial record on which to judge her.

Furthermore, it should have been obvious that this was not an appointment that would appease President Bush's conservative base, nor, for that matter, even most of the moderates in the Republican Party. While the politically perceptive among them could understand why the president did not totally meet their hopes in naming the successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, they saw this particular nomination as a giant question mark, one that was an insult. They equated it with his father's appointment of David Souter, who was touted to them as right on the social issues but turned out to be moderate and even liberal.

Why would Bush pick someone so vulnerable to disagreement by both sides, one who had intimate knowledge of his policy secrets, to send into a confirmation process that in the past decades often has been a rancorous nightmare? Moreover, why would that nominee, if she had the knowledge required to serve on this highest of courts, not see the pitfalls and decline the offer? After all, she had been in charge of sorting out the potential nominees.

The easiest answer would be that Bush obviously is most comfortable with those close to him, and she is a consummate loyalist. He is an old-school president who often picks personnel for jobs based on attributes other than qualifications. That has been made clear especially in his choices for any number of appointments to top posts, including the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. But in the recent nomination of John Roberts to be chief justice of the United States, he seemed to have overcome his penchant for cronyism.

In this case, however, there appears to have been an ingredient that was missing -- the forceful advice of his political wizard, Karl Rove. Where was Rove in this? The choice of Miers came just as scandal and the threat of indictment began swirling in earnest around Rove. He has been preoccupied with his own problems stemming from the grand jury investigation into the leak that revealed the name of a CIA operative. That is the only plausible explanation for this appointment given Rove's reputation and record for leading his boss around the political ditches that mark this city.

So left to his own devices, or at least not dissuaded strongly enough, the president took a course he had not thought out well, resulting in another disaster to heap on an increasing load of them in the past two months -- problems that are setting new records in low approval ratings. Republican demographer Frank Luntz blames much of the president's difficulties on his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which he said did much to sour the atmosphere and make all the other failings more acute.

Miers is most certainly a more than decent attorney. But her lack of experience in constitutional considerations and most every other field except corporate law made her qualifications dubious even to her supporters. In the end it was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter who made her decision easy. He let the White House know he was dissatisfied with her lack of response to a committee questionnaire and finally that he would be asking, make that demanding, that she answer questions about what advice she had given about holding prisoners in Guantanamo. Without the Republican chairman's full cooperation, this nomination was doomed, and Miers was smart enough to know it.

The president must now go back to the list that Miers had given him at the start of this search and find someone suitable, like Roberts, pretty much to all sides. That task could be terribly arduous given the emotions over any number of key social issues including abortion. One would hope that he has learned something here, that good, loyal friends aren't always suited to the job in question.

Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

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