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October 27, 2005
CourtBriefs: The Tipping Point?
Did Miers jump or was she pushed? Conservative commentators and legal observers were lining up against Miers this week. In the Senate, liberals remained mostly mute, but conservatives were also rumbling and grumbling. Here's a look at how the noose tightened:
Monday: The ad buy
Newly formed conservative action group Americans for Better Justice buy $250,000 of TV and radio time for anti-Miers ads. "Conservatives have worked too hard for too long to settle for anything less than our very best on the Supreme Court," ABJ's David Frum tells AP. (Former Bush speechwriter Frum's opposition dates to Oct. 3, when he wrote at the National Review, "There is no reason at all to believe ... that she has the spine and steel necessary to resist the pressures that constantly bend the American legal system to toward the left.") A coalition of groups that includes the Eagle Forum start a website, withdrawmiers.org, with anti-Miers articles and a list of concerns, including her "undefined judicial philosophy" and a "tainted process."
Tuesday: Senators weigh in
Republican senators kept their comments publicly neutral, but already opposition was gathering. On Monday Sen. Lindsey Graham told WaPo that talk of Miers' withdrawal was "wishful thinking, not grounded by reality." And Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice noted, "There is not significant opposition in the U.S. Senate, and at the end of the day, they are the only ones who get to vote." But on Tuesday, judiciary committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told the NYT, "I am uneasy about where we are." Another conservative senator, John Thune of South Dakota, said, "There is an awful lot of Republican senators who are saying we are going to wait and see."
Wednesday: The speech
On NPR this morning Miers critic Frum cites a 1993 speech (PDF file) that takes a soft line on abortion. "The underlying theme in most of these [abortion] cases is the insistence of more self-determination. And the more I think about these issues, the more self-determination makes the most sense. Legislating religion or morality we gave up on a long time ago," Miers told the Executive Women of Dallas.
National Review's Edward Whelan finds it "disturbing" yesterday: "Her comments reflect such a profound confusion, and such an inattention to the respective roles of the courts and the political branches, that they call seriously into question her fitness for the Supreme Court." The Withdraw Now crowd at National Review's Bench Memos gets rowdy.
Meanwhile, was Senate opposition stiffening? MSNBC reports today that a conservative senator called the White House to say Miers wouldn't make it through the Republican-controlled judiciary committee.
Posted at October 27, 2005 09:03 AM