Two thoughts on how they might go, which run somewhat counter to each other. First, the White House has dealt with discontent on the right by playing up Miers’s evangelicalism and pro-life position. Doesn’t that create a problem for her in the hearings? Especially when the administration flipped in one week from its view that a nominee’s religion and stance on abortion are irrelevant? (There are plausible arguments for both the position the administration took on Roberts and the one it is taking on Miers, but it would at least be tricky to make a plausible argument for both positions at the same time.) She’ll have to reassure the left without alienating the Right. It’s possible, but it’s a tougher assignment than Roberts faced.

Second: Miers’s critics, by sometimes overplaying her lack of qualifications, have lowered the bar for her to seem impressive. When a critic compares her to a dog, it’s at least as unhelpful for the critics’ side as when a defender calls the critics sexists.

So the substance of her views may end up being a bigger problem at the hearings than her qualifications will be.