Did Miers Take One for the Team?

Miers was tokenism, IMO. Bush put up someone he knew would get rejected so that he could nominate a middle-aged white guy and not get pounded in the press.

Someday, in the near future, when all you kneejerk Bush haters have gotten over the whole "Blame Bush" syndrome you are so fond of, you are going to look at this and realize just what kind of genius political machine had the Whitehouse during this period.

I though Nixon had some sharp operators in his corner, but his group pales next to the set of world class political strategists that the President has wrapped around him.

She was his LAWYER... perhaps even his friend ... either way, he engendered in her (Meiers) enough loyalty to throw herself on a grenade so the Presidents REAL nominee would have a better chance of sailing though.

Step One: Nominate someone who is BARELY qualified for a post, One who the other Party will scream about and make a scene over her 'qualifications'

Step Two: Watch as the Democrats shout from the mountaintops that there is no way that this person is qualified or should be on the Bench.

Step Three: Watch as the Republicans who normally support you go 'up in arms' about how this person isn't what the President promised you for a nominee.

Step Four: Have the nominee throw herself on her sword by withdrawing her nomination.

Step Five: Nominate the person you wanted in that position all along. Now if the opposition yells and blusters too loudly, it looks to the regular people like they are just being obstructionist and petty in objecting to 'anyone' the President nominates.

Step Six: Watch as your Republican base is so relieved about a jurist that is this qualified, they ignore that he might be a bit more to the Right than they would prefer. Watch the more moderate members of your Party fall into line because they are afraid of who you might nominate if they reject THIS one.

I'm telling you, this Administration is freaking AMAZING.


Just my opinion... any connection between this and any actual politial Party/Group is purely coincidental.

some get Borked
some get Miered
seems to be a matter of presentation.

Apparently the new line from both the far right and the far left is: the Miers nomination was a brilliant ruse. Here's why this new evil genius (from the left)/brilliant god (from the right) theory is bogus:

(1) It's blatant hindsight thinkingIt makes some of Bush's supporters look foolish. Again, what about Leanard Leo, Dobson and others? Dobson had to turn around 180 degrees to save face, and Leo was forced to resign.

(3) It makes Bush look foolish, compounding numerous other problems facing the Whitehouse. This isn't the first false start by the Bush team. Remember the Social Security plan? Do you really think more second term failures strengthen his hand, particularly when people from both parties are tossing around the phrase "lame duck"?

(4) It split Bush's "base." Do you really think that Bush intended to humiliate his personal lawyer and friend? This one paints a rather dark image. Either Miers was in on the plan, and both she and the president were intentionally misleading the public, or the president was sucker punching on one of his most trusted friends.

(6) What about Laura?Why waste the Senate's time? Remember, Bush has a legislative agenda. It doesn't help that agenda to hold up the Senate with bogus nominations. Additionally, isn't there something problematic about the president gumming up the country's legislative engine with nomination-related gamesmanship?

I'll go with Occam's razor on this one. The simple answer is the right answer: Miers was a mistake. Someday both the Bush worshipers and the Bush conspiracy theorists will come to this conclusion. Bush, like everyone else, makes mistakes.

As for Fedral, your characterization of Nixon as the paradigmatic political genius is more telling than you think. What ever happened to that political superstar anyway? Pure genius…

By the way, step Five never happened. It was the right who got rid of Miers. How this helps Bush characterize the left as obstructionists is quite the mystery, particularly as she wasn't rejected by, for instance, Harry Reid.

I don't hate Bush & Co. because they're effective politically. I hate 'em because they're ruining the country, and they don't care so long as they remain in power.