tdaxp

"Miers Withdraws Nomination to Supreme Court," Associated Press, 27 October 2005, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173665,00.html
(from Catholicgauze).

Harriet Miers, that unqualified Supreme Court candidate who threw the White House into disarray, has been withdrawn!

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice Thursday in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism about her qualifications.

Bush said he reluctantly accepted her decision to withdraw, after weeks of insisting that he did not want her to step down. He blamed her withdrawal on calls in the Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration has insisted were protected by executive privilege.

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House -- disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said. "Harriet Miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers -- and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her."

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Ms. Miers, in a 1993 speech in Dallas, spoke approvingly about a trend toward "self-determination" in resolving debates about law and religion, including those involving abortion rights and religion in public schools and public places.

"The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual woman's right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion," Ms. Miers said, according to a copy of the speech. "Questions about what can be taught or done in public places or public schools are presented frequently to the courts."

...

Concerned Women for America, a social conservative group that had been on the sidelines of the Miers nomination, reacted to the news of the speech by joining a coalition of conservative groups calling for her withdrawal.

This could get really ugly, but I am loathe to wish for something better, because I feel that, in Miers' defeat, we'll set the stage for a truly right-wing justice in her place. In my mind, centrists and Dems the country over were lucky to see O'Connor and Rhenquist so "moderately" replaced. Roberts will be a good herder of cats, I believe, and Miers was unlikely to do much harm [suc], being an intellectual lightweight.

If Miers goes down, and I now believe it is entirely possible (when the Wills and the Kristols abandon you and the Left is gearing up, you're in real trouble), we may all end up being happy with Roberts' tendency to rule as a real centrist (which I believe he will), because what we end up with post-Miers may be fairly hardcore.

The Wingnuts would not even wait for the confirmation process to unfold. The straw the broke the camel's back was, wthout a doubt, the disclosure of Miers' 1993 speech which may have signalled that Miers would uphold Roe. Miers wrote:

the loyalties Miers showed Bush yesterday, with her withdrawing her name and trying to protect the privacy of what happens behind close doors there... is surly the kind of loyalty to be rewarded with perhaps... a supreme court nomination?