It appears that, so far, the press is by and large content to re-package
left-leaning groups’ talking points about Ms. Miers’s withdrawal as if they
actually had connections to, let alone represented, reality.
When a Democratic Senator or Ralph Neas shakes his or her head in sadness about
the mean, nasty right-wing take-down of Ms. Miers, or expresses hopes for a
unifying, “consensus nominee,” it needs to be made clear — not only in opinion
journalism, but in any news account by a responsible journalist — that (a) the
Miers’s nomination was *supported* by many on the “right” (Dobson, Hewitt,
etc.), just as it was opposed by many on the “right”; (b) that Ms. Miers’s had
been strongly criticized by the “left”, and certainly would have been savaged
by the “left” had many on the right not voiced their principled opposition
(does anyone really believe that — but for the conservative opposition –
Sens. Kennedy, Boxer, and Schumer would not have been hysterical in opposing a
pro-life, evangelical, Bush loyalist?); and (c) in today’s politics, there is
no such thing, unfortunately, as a “consensus” nominee. Any one who is smart,
experienced, on-record, and mainstream-conservative (e.g., Boggs, Alito,
Luttig, McConnell, E. Jones, O’Scannlain, Sutton, Pryor, etc.), will be opposed
by the Democratic Senators and the left-leaning interest groups, automatically
and ruthlessly. Remember, even John Roberts got 22 “no” votes.