Conservatives Weigh In On Mier Nomination

(The people of Mudville are unhappy - and it has nothing to do with baseball)

"I'm disappointed, depressed and demoralized," said William Kristol, an influential conservative and editor of the Weekly Standard.

"What does this say about the next three years of the Bush administration, leaving aside for a moment the future of the court? Surely this is a pick from weakness. Is the administration more broadly so weak? What are the prospects for a strong Bush second term? What are the prospects for holding solid GOP majorities in Congress in 2006 if conservatives are demoralized?"

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, said that Bush let slip an opportunity to shift the court decisively to the right, a chance that conservatives long have awaited.

"This is the moment for which the conservative legal movement has been waiting for two decades ... " Frum said. Yet Bush passed over known, qualified contenders for a woman that Frum said he knew from White House days as "intelligent, honest, capable, loyal, discreet, dedicated" - but lacking the steel to stand for conservative principles on the high court.

The White House political operation mobilized quickly to reassure conservatives.

Vice President Dick Cheney went on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, one of the most influential conservative forums. Limbaugh pressed Cheney on why the White House picked Miers when "her judicial philosophy is unknown" and that she seemed chosen "to appease the left."

Cheney denied that, said he knew Miers is a conservative, that her background would add useful diversity to the court, and that the rest of the country would look back "in 10 years" and know that was true.

"Why do we need to wait 10 years?" Limbaugh said. "There are people that he could have nominated that we would know about now. Is there a desire in the White House because of current poll numbers or this Katrina response that just doesn't want the fight with the Senate Democrats at this time?" (Don't you just love Limbaugh's use of the word "WE" - painting himself as one of the religious right. Since when does drug addiction and multiple marriages make one a member of the religious right? Oh, I'm sorry --- I forgot --- hypocricy gets you into that club! In that case, he's the poster boy.)

Cheney ended up saying simply: "You'll be proud of Harriet's record, Rush. Trust me."

"The president's nomination of Miers is a betrayal of the conservative, pro-family voters whose support put Bush in the White House in both the 2000 and 2004 elections," said Eugene Delgaudio, the president of a conservative group called Public Advocate.

Erick-Woods Erickson, a Georgia-based Republican blogger:

"George W. Bush was the ultimate stealth nominee. He has acted like a true-blue conservative, talking the talk and walking the tax-cut walk. But he has expanded government, spent the future, and now nominated she who has the potential to be a female Souter."