MOVED TO THE TOP BY HOLLY IN CINCINNATI:
Others will likely post here during the day on the Harriet Miers nomination withdrawal, but here’s just a small part of the early reaction:
—Red State’s Mike Krempasky:
Ok everyone – back to the barracks, let’s get ready to get behind a nominee we can support.
(note: unfortunately for Erick – I was late in getting back to him with an approval of a RS editorial calling for Ms. Miers to withdraw her nomination. It ought to have been up on the site last night, but for my tardiness.)
—Daily Kos: “The Wingnuts would not even wait for the confirmation process to unfold. The straw the broke the camel’s back was, wthout a doubt, the disclosure of Miers’ 1993 speech which may have signalled that Miers would uphold Roe. “
—Just One Minute: “Another slow news day. Well, she picked a good day to step aside, if she wants to avoid attention. No hint on whether Fitzgerald planned to indict her.”
—Scrappleface:
(2005-10-27) — Harriet Miers today withdrew her name from consideration as a Supreme Court Justice so she could “spend more time with family and friends, and just humans in general.”
“During the weeks since my nomination,” said Miss Miers, “as I made the rounds on Capitol Hill, I have missed the fellowship of human beings that I enjoyed on earth. So, I’m returning to the mother planet.”
The narrative emerging seems to be that this was, above all, about Miers’ failure to meet the right’s litmus tests—in particular, uncertainty about whether she’d overturn Roe. But that just doesn’t make sense in a lot of ways. For one, the widely loved (on the right) Roberts doesn’t seem to have been any more of a sure thing on that front—certainly not after he described Roe as a “settled precedent” that is “entitled to respect.” Is it that hard to buy that this really was, at least in significant part, about her thin resumé? Heaven forfend we should concede that not everything is explicable through the lens of horse-race outcome-oriented politics, that some people actually have a principled commitment to a competent Court.
—Brenden Nyhan: “Who’s next — Jeb Bush? And what’s up with the timing of this announcement? Maybe they want to drown out the forthcoming indictments, but it seems like we’ll see the opposite effect – it will magnify the (correct) perception of an administration in disarray.”
—Stop The ACLU has a roundup and writes:
Many were leery about this pick from the beginning, and now the President will have the chance to put someone on the Supreme Court that will not rule from the bench, and will also have the backing of the majority of the Conservative base! Many will be happy with this news. But now the question is….who will be his next pick? Who do you think he should choose
Three quick thoughts on what this means…Bush may now:
- Give his party’s conservative wing exactly the kind of candidate they’ve been waiting for, picking from their list of “approved” candidates — perhaps even picking one who will spark a partisan political bloodbath.
- Stick it to the conservatives who gave him so much trouble on this one and pick someone whom he likes with better qualifications than Miers but isn’t the one the conservatives want (such as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales).
- Go for someone who at least partially resembles John Roberts, who is acceptable to both sides — a conservative but not a polarizing figure.
Our early bet: He’ll go for 1 or 3. With the Plamegate indictments likely it’s unlikely he’ll want to do something now that doesn’t strengthen his core-supporter base.
Our second early bet: George W. Bush doesn’t seem like a man who forgets and it’ll be interesting to see if there are consequences further down the line for those in his own party who bucked him on this one.
NOTE FROM TMV: Due to logistics, TMV won’t be personally posting more on this for some hours. Check the posts on the POST CHAIN below on Miers and the posts by co-bloggers. This post chain below will be updated throughout the day so you can read all of the posts here on the Miers withdrawal on one page. TMV will give his own take later.