Reap What You Sow?

Did President Bush create the Harriet Miers fiasco by sowing distrust among conservatives with his support of Arlen Specter? I don't know whether all of the important conservative players against Miers were active in the pro-Toomey and then N0Specter campaigns. But it sure seems some of the biggest anti-Miers folks were among those at least sceptical of Specter. NRO, for example, linked to anti-Specter blogs, etc. The mistrust started way back here, I think. Both times these agendas lost to Bush's will. (There did not appear to be any administration attempt to patch things up with these groups. And maybe this was the biggest error.) Then when Miers was picked, that mistrust erupted quickly.

My own feeling is that Miers was an uncourageous pick, as stated before. I do not agree with the vitriol aimed at her, regardless. I have no idea how good a Supreme she would make, though I think it certainly helps to have more constitutional law experience. A perfectly great doctor, for example, might make a terrible Surgeon General if (s)he did not have any public health or health administration experience. Could that person grow in the job? Sure, but unless it were necessary for some extraordinary reason, I would pick someone who already has more familiarity with the job. Maybe Bush felt he had some extraordinary reason. (In the pre-selection process, I thought it was not smart for some to be calling for candidates with non-judicial experience.)

So, will Miers get the job? It seems that the anti-Miers people on the right will unfortunately have to rely on fire from the left, if they are to succeed. This will not probably serve them well with the next pick, as Bush seems to be rather stubborn.

ColumbusGuy adds: According to this post, my speculation that Miers was a brain behind Bush's excellent 2001 judicial picks is anogo. Of course, lies are as thick as flies among those people, but nonetheless I'm tempted to believe the worst, that she had little hand in that excellent work. So who was it? Gonzales?