In addition, Harriet Miers . . .
As White House counsel has earned the praise of senators left and right; oversaw the selection and nomination process that led to the confirmation of Roberts; has worked with Bush for more than a decade; and so, as a loyal Bush confidante, has won from him this ultimate accolade - as did Dick Cheney, who chaired Bush's team to find a vice-presidential nominee, as well as longtime aides Condoleezza Rice (who went on to become secretary of state), Margaret Spellings (secretary of education), Karen Hughes (undersecretary of state for public diplomacy) and Alberto Gonzales (attorney general).
George Bush is a conviction pol. At his Tuesday press conference he said, "I'm still a conservative, proudly so." He also is an instinct pol: He tends to go with his instincts about people, and in his same press conference, he said of Harriet Miers: "I know her heart" and, implicitly addressing the maxim that if one is not actively conservative he or she tends to drift left, as Sandra O'Connor has: "Her philosophy won't change."
Very well.
Rightly or wrongly, Bush is under the gun for Iraq, Katrina and the rising price of gasoline; tax simplification and Social Security reform are off the table for the year. Tom DeLay has been indicted and Bill Frist faces an ethics inquiry; Karl Rove and Lewis Libby (Vice President Cheney's chief of staff) may be cited by a federal prosecutor as the Valerie Plame leakers. Times are tough for the president.
And loud lefties are gunning for him on this nomination to the Supreme Court. They insist he not change its direction - that he nominate someone in the tradition of Sandra O'Connor, that he consult with the Senate ahead of time, that he reach beyond the federal judiciary. He has done those things, and offered Harriet Miers.
This president goes with what, and whom, he knows. In selecting Miers, he has dropped his "youth" requirement (she is 60). Yet he has nominated someone whose public record is scanty and whose White House records may be protected not only by executive privilege but lawyer-client privilege. Along the way, the president has said, famously, that he will nominate individuals in the tradition of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. He did, with John Roberts, and prevailed.
To whatever extent he intended it as a stealth enterprise, he has followed with Harriet Miers. Here's to movement conservatives not joining with the left to blow her cover. And if Bush is not the dim bulb those who detest him insist he is, then the rest of us might be well advised, through faith and intellect, to believe in his nominee.