Thursday, October 20, 2005
From Quag-Miers to Quicksand...
The writing seems to be on the wall when center-left Slate and conservative NRO come to essentially the same conclusion: Say good night, Harriet.
The "incomplete" questionnaire was manna-from-heaven to senators: Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, they no longer had to worry about things like ideology or judicial philosophy or cronyism; instead, they had proof -- in Miers' own hand -- that she doesn't have the basic knowledge-set to sit on the nation's highest court.
The question now is to figure out how the endgame is played; that may not be as easy as one might think. One problem for the White House: If the nomination is basically dead -- and from all appearances it is -- what's the strategy in selecting the replacement and what's the timetable?
Normally, one would imagine that the administration would use this weekend to begin the replacement process -- perhaps with an eye toward the end of next week to unveiling the nominee. Yet, with some sort of action expected from Patrick Fitzgerald in regards to the Washington's other big story, one wonders if it is possible for the White House to focus on bringing the Miers debacle to as quick a face-saving conclusion as possible.
On a lighter note, exactly what got the Senate Judiciary Committee members so exercised about Miers' questionnaire? Somehow, the liberal blogger Billmon dug up the document in question. Quite revealing.
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The "incomplete" questionnaire was manna-from-heaven to senators: Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, they no longer had to worry about things like ideology or judicial philosophy or cronyism; instead, they had proof -- in Miers' own hand -- that she doesn't have the basic knowledge-set to sit on the nation's highest court.
The question now is to figure out how the endgame is played; that may not be as easy as one might think. One problem for the White House: If the nomination is basically dead -- and from all appearances it is -- what's the strategy in selecting the replacement and what's the timetable?
Normally, one would imagine that the administration would use this weekend to begin the replacement process -- perhaps with an eye toward the end of next week to unveiling the nominee. Yet, with some sort of action expected from Patrick Fitzgerald in regards to the Washington's other big story, one wonders if it is possible for the White House to focus on bringing the Miers debacle to as quick a face-saving conclusion as possible.
On a lighter note, exactly what got the Senate Judiciary Committee members so exercised about Miers' questionnaire? Somehow, the liberal blogger Billmon dug up the document in question. Quite revealing.
