wrote an argument for senators’ voting for Miers; I questioned part of that argument; and he has now responded. The point he is now making is that moderate/liberal Republicans are currently willing to support conservative nominees, but might not if conservatives sink non-conservative nominees. Some of the moderate/liberal Republicans who voted down Bork are still with us of course. But I take Mirengoff’s point: conservative votes against non-conservative (or non-certainly-conservative) nominees would increase the probability that the Warners and Specters and Snowes would vote against the next conservative nominee. The question is the magnitude of the effect, which is hard for anyone to gauge.