ConfirmThem

By Erick Posted in SCOTUS — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

They did not do it with Roberts, despite some suggesting he was an enigma. But, the President, his communications director, and the Vice President are all out doing the full court press for Harriet Miers. Interestingly, they are not making a case that liberals should support her. They are making the case that conservatives should. Can it be that the White House really was caught off guard by conservative angst over this nomination? I find that hard to believe, but it seems increasingly likely that the White House really did just assume conservatives would trust him.

As Wendell Gollar said on Fox News just before the press conference, the White House did not expect the type of criticism it has gotten from either Rush Limbaugh or Bill Kristol. It is just interesting that a White House that has been so careful could badly miscalculate in this area -- an area that they have, to their credit, handled exceptionally well for five years. Clearly, one area they failed out was lowering expectations for a Jones, a Luttig, or an Alito.

It also seems the White House is having to play defense on two fronts. The first is that Miers will vote with the conservatives on the court (an argument that will weaken her with the left in the Senate). The second is that Miers is well qualified (an argument that so far has not played well with either the left or the right). The White House has resorted to the same rhetorical tactic repeatedly in five years -- if you say something often enough, people will eventually believe it. Thus far that appears to be their strategy in the Miers nomination with respect to her qualifications.