The Washington Post story Rich posts below is precisely the sort of thing I had in mind when I said last week these revelations about Miers hurt Bush. When Bork and Thomas got beaten up, they got beaten up for being conservatives or for desperate allegations — and these attacks galvanized the base. But these stories about how Miers was squishy or even liberal on various issues go to the heart of her nomination. Bush has nothing else to invoke but his own gut that she won’t change, that she’s a conservative, etc. And when these stories come out they undermine the case for trusting Bush which, in this environment, is a poisonous political problem for the President. The last thing he needs is for conservatives to wake up every morning and say “What was he thinking?” when they read the morning paper.

So when Rich says, elsewhere below, that the attacks on Miers aren’t about the President, he may be right retrospectively. But every day this goes on Miers becomes more and more a symbol or stand-in for Bush. If a few more stories come out bolstering the appearance that she’s pro-choice (or a pro-lifer in favor of “self-determination), pro-quotas etc. she could turn out to be a cancer on the presidency. Not in the Watergate sense but in terms of destroying trust among many conservatives.