It seems to me that in politics sometimes the best thing you can do is lose, because it can be the surest way to put an unpopular or divisive issue behind you. J-Pod will know more about this than I do, but it seems to me it was a huge boon for Mayor Bloomberg to lose the fight over the Westside stadium here in New York, because then he could move on to talking about and doing things that people actually support. If Bush withdraws Miers, there will be much commentary about how weakened he is, etc., but then soon enough everyone will be on to the next thing, and–one hopes–that next thing wouldn’t involve a debilitating fight with his base.