Miers Retreats from Nomination
Yesterday morning, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination by President Bush. Miers's tenure as a Supreme Court nominee was plagued by concerns that she was not qualified for the job. Additionally, conservatives were concerned that she might waiver on important cases that they have waited to overturn.
Charles Dharapak, Associated Press
Farewell, Ms. Miers. We hardly knew ye.
Aside from conservatives attacking Miers on philosophical grounds, those who questioned her qualifications were given a boost recently as Miers's questionnaire to the Senate was found inadequate (to use a more polite word).
But now the episode is over, though it dealt yet another blow to the Bush administration. After all the talk during the 2004 presidential campaign that the president will be able to send whomever he wanted to the Supreme Court, it would have been surprising if last year someone would say that not only would Bush fail to put a chosen nominee on the Court, but that it would be Republicans that defeated Bush and even prevented the nominee from receiving a vote in the Senate.
What happened to the "mandate" that conservatives said Bush won in 2004? And as I wondered almost three weeks ago, what happened to the up-or-down vote? In struggling to uphold some of their beliefs, conservatives took a belief they very much believed in earlier this year and sacrificed it at the altar in favor of defeating Miers. I wonder how many of them remember their own words about how every nominee deserves the "up-or-down" vote and that Democrats were discriminating against conservatives on ideological causes.
Charles Dharapak, Associated Press
Farewell, Ms. Miers. We hardly knew ye.
Aside from conservatives attacking Miers on philosophical grounds, those who questioned her qualifications were given a boost recently as Miers's questionnaire to the Senate was found inadequate (to use a more polite word).
But now the episode is over, though it dealt yet another blow to the Bush administration. After all the talk during the 2004 presidential campaign that the president will be able to send whomever he wanted to the Supreme Court, it would have been surprising if last year someone would say that not only would Bush fail to put a chosen nominee on the Court, but that it would be Republicans that defeated Bush and even prevented the nominee from receiving a vote in the Senate.
What happened to the "mandate" that conservatives said Bush won in 2004? And as I wondered almost three weeks ago, what happened to the up-or-down vote? In struggling to uphold some of their beliefs, conservatives took a belief they very much believed in earlier this year and sacrificed it at the altar in favor of defeating Miers. I wonder how many of them remember their own words about how every nominee deserves the "up-or-down" vote and that Democrats were discriminating against conservatives on ideological causes.
posted by Will at 7:43 AM
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