Less Wishful Thinking, More Objective Analysis Mr. Weisman

The Rift's Repercussions Could Last Rest of Term

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005; Page A08

The withdrawal of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court yesterday was a triumph for conservative activists, but some of the drama's lead players said the bruising battle between erstwhile allies may have left scars for the remainder of President Bush's term.

Those who opposed Miers as insufficiently qualified and unreliably conservative said yesterday they would use their new zeal and organization to drive Bush not only to pick an outwardly conservative nominee but also to press a more conservative agenda through his last three years in office. Some accused those who stuck with Miers as showing themselves more loyal to the White House than their stated conservative principles.

Those who stuck with Miers warned that the White House will long remember the activists who turned on the president's nominee and are not likely to be receptive to their demands.

"This is an enormously significant event for conservatives, no doubt about that," said Manuel A. Miranda, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who led the conservative drive to scuttle Miers's confirmation. "It will be stamped across our foreheads for years: Which side were you on in the Miers fight?"

Without doubt, Miers's nomination stirred passions among conservatives that have lain dormant for much of the Bush presidency. Richard A. Viguerie, an architect of the conservative movement, said activists held their tongues for nearly five years as Bush expanded the federal role in education, imposed tariffs on imported steel, secured a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, and oversaw the rapid expansion of federal spending.

"But we did that because it was all about the courts, all about the courts, all about the courts," Viguerie said. "Then when he betrayed us on a Supreme Court nominee, that just woke us all up."

Sometimes it just escapes me how some of the guys keep their jobs. This "analysis" is so far off that it could pass for parody. This was no rift, it was a family squabble. The Republican Party emerges stronger and more united. Democrats are growing more and more desperate as they see their dreams of winning back the Congress and White House fade into the mist. As these minor bumps such as the non-crime of Valerie Plame Wilsons "exposure" and the trumped up charges against DeLay get resolved, the Democrats are going to come off as the petty, vindictive, haters they are.

Full Story: Republican Unity

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