I wonder if one of the reasons Bush picked Miers is that it’s very difficult to predict what other nominees would be reliable, from his perspective, on terror-related issues. That a nominee thinks of himself as an originalist would not make him reliable: Scalia thinks of himself as an originalist, and voted to curb executive power. If the president thought it important to have a justice who would not constrain the executive prosecution of the war, knew Miers was so inclined, and couldn’t say the same about any number of nominees with impeccably originalist paper trails, that would have argued in favor of his decision. What do you think, Andy?