The pre-hearing omens are not good. When the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee express bipartisan exasperation, annoyance and almost indignation at her answers to the committee's simple questionnaire, she's got trouble. This after she confused Chairman Specter about her position on Griswold, the second most famous ``right to privacy'' case ever, and seemed confused when answering ranking Democrat Leahy's question about her favorite justice.

     But it gets worse. There's the off-stage stuff. John Fund reports that in a conference call of conservative leaders, two confidantes of Miers explicitly said that she would overturn Roe. The subsequent denials by one of these judges that he ever said that, and the subsequent affirmation by two of the people who had heard the call that in fact he did say so, create the nightmare scenario of subpoenaed witnesses contradicting each other under oath over Miers.

     We need an exit strategy from this debacle. I have it.

     Lindsey Graham has been a staunch and public supporter of this nominee. Yet on Wednesday he joined Brownback in demanding privileged documents from Miers' White House tenure.

     Finally, light at the end of this tunnel. A way out: irreconcilable differences over documents.

     For a nominee who, unlike John Roberts, has practically no previous record on constitutional issues, such documentation is essential for the Senate to judge her thinking and legal acumen. But there is no way that any president would release this kind of information -- ``policy documents'' and ``legal analysis'' -- from such a close confidante. It would forever undermine the ability of any president to get unguarded advice.

     Which creates a classic conflict, not of personality, not of competence, not of ideology, but of simple constitutional prerogatives: The Senate cannot confirm her unless it has this information. And the White House cannot allow release of this information lest it jeopardize executive privilege.

     Hence the perfectly honorable way to solve the conundrum: Miers withdraws out of respect for both the Senate and the executive's prerogatives, the Senate expresses appreciation for this gracious acknowledgment of its needs and responsibilities, and the White House accepts her decision with the deepest regret and with gratitude for Miers' putting preservation of executive prerogative above personal ambition.

     Faces saved. And we start again.