Miers' Myths

With the withdrawal of Harriet Miers, theories and aphorisms about the "meaning" of the whole sad affair are beginning to spread mushrooms after a rainstorm.  Many of these theories, like the president's stated reason for accepting her withdrawal, are simply wrong.  Here are a couple that particularly exercise me:

1. The Miers debacle was all about ideology.

Over at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick argues that the Miers' nomination "went off the rails about seven seconds after it was announced" because of Miers' lack of a conservative record.  While it's true that Miers had real ideological opposition from folks who wanted a more established conservative, her resume is what really did her in.  For folks like George Will, it was always about her lack of qualifications and the whiff of cronyism.  If a respected, experienced centrist is nominated, some conservatives might cry foul, but they would not be able to bring down the nomination simply based on ideology.  (There's a similar myth that Bork was brought down solely because of his ideology.  But Bork orchestrated the Saturday Night Massacre.  If Bork hadn't fired Cox, he'd be on the Supreme Court.)

2. Miers' withdrawal is a loss for the Democrats.

I heard Laura Ingraham trying to make this case on the radio.  All I can say is: are you Effingham kidding me?  Bush comes off very poorly in this: he nominated someone that almost everyone thought was a poor choice.  A group of intelligent conservatives turned against Bush; they said they don't trust Bush anymore while slipping in complaints about Iraq and the deficit.  Now, Bush will only placate them by nominating a very conservative justice.  But what if he does?  He'd look like he was caving in to these folks.  If he had nominated a Luttig or Jones initially, Democrats would have been in a tough spot, having to convince the country that the person was extreme.  Now, if faced with Luttig or Brown, Dems can say, "Bush is toadying to the far right because they brought down that decent woman, Harriet Miers.  You know, the nice Christian lady?"  And compared to Miers, a strong conservative will look like an extremist.  I still think an extreme nominee might be just what congressional Dems are hoping for.  Regardless, however, Dems now have more ammunition to fight the next nominee than they would have had without Miers.  And that counts as a gain, not a loss.