Wishfull Thinking by Democrats Based On Dishonest Assessment

Conservatives' Tactics Against Miers May Backfire Next Time
Liberals Say the Rules Keep Changing

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A04

Conservative activists crippled Harriet Miers's Supreme Court nomination largely by challenging her judicial philosophy, debating the importance of her religious beliefs, demanding to see White House documents and derailing her before she reached a Senate vote. Those tactics may make it harder for them to defend President Bush's next pick, expected by many to be a solid conservative, according to a number of Democrats, independent analysts and even some conservative commentators.

They are struck by differences between the Miers nomination process and that of John G. Roberts Jr., who was confirmed as chief justice a month ago. When liberals mentioned a possible filibuster of Roberts, Republicans insisted on an "up-or-down vote," which Miers never received. Virtually all GOP senators defended the White House's refusal to surrender documents concerning Roberts, but some of them demanded comparable documents regarding Miers.

And whereas Republicans said Roberts's religious beliefs should not be a subject of Senate inquiry, Bush cited Miers's church affiliation and religious convictions as one of her chief qualifications. Now the Democrats may be in a stronger position to wage a filibuster or demand more detailed documentation and explanation of the next nominee's positions if they conclude he or she is out of the judicial mainstream.

"The Republican senators are changing every rule they attempted to set" in the Roberts confirmation, said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the Judiciary Committee's most senior member. "They flip-flopped on whether judicial philosophy and religious beliefs are appropriate" topics of Senate probing, he said. "And they flip-flopped on whether Harriet Miers deserved an up-or-down vote."

Marcia D. Greenberger, founder of the National Women's Law Center, said: "I don't know how people can, with a straight face, make some of the same arguments they made in the Roberts nomination after what they said so vociferously with Miers."

Some conservatives agree. Commentator Hugh Hewitt, in a New York Times op-ed column Friday, noted that several Senate Republicans campaigned in 2002 and 2004 on the "up-or-down vote" issue for judicial nominees. "Now, with the withdrawal of Harriet Miers under an instant, fierce and sometimes false assault from conservative pundits and activists, it will be difficult for Republican candidates to continue to make this winning argument: that Democrats have deeply damaged the integrity of the advice and consent process," wrote Hewitt, a law professor at Chapman University in California.

Many of his fellow conservatives reject this argument. "Harriet Miers was heading toward an up-or-down vote" when she decided to withdraw, said Brian McCabe, president of Progress for America, which backed Roberts and Miers. He said there was no talk of a filibuster -- in which 40 of the Senate's 100 members can prevent a question from reaching a vote.

Come on Charles. "Some conservatives agree?" Hugh Hewitt is not "some," but one. Most of us were willing to give Miss Miers her day in the sunshine, but our missgivings stemmed not from her religious beliefs, that was a red-herring put out there by the White House, nor from her philosophy (there were some who did question this). It stemmed from an apparent complete lack of qualifications for the position. Even Senator Specter, who Friday railed about not giving her a chance, said that she needed a crash course in Constitutional Law. That Senator is not what I would call a ringing endoresment. If Democrats choose to take this tack, they will have their posteriors handed to them for it.

Full Story: Dem Dreams

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