WASHINGTON, 28 October 2005 — Perhaps it was the fact that Harriet Miers could not even get the backing of the nation’s largest conservative women’s group — which called Wednesday for her withdrawal as President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee — that was the final straw that broke the camel’s back
Whatever the reason, Miers yesterday withdrew her nomination, and Bush said he “reluctantly accepted” Miers’ decision.
An embarrassing high number of conservative opponents had mounted an anti-Miers campaign to force her withdrawal ever since her nomination was announced Oct. 3, and some conservative senators had expressed doubts as to whether Miers, 60, was sufficiently conservative to move the divided nine-member high court firmly to the right.
They also argued she lacked experience in constitutional law and was basically a crony of the president, all charges rejected by Bush.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who had urged Bush to consider Miers for the court, charged: “The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination. Apparently, Ms. Miers did not satisfy those who want to pack the Supreme Court with rigid ideologues,” Reid said.
But life is not over for Miers. She will now return to her job as Bush’s top White House lawyer.
Miers cited the US Senate’s demand for internal White House documents on her advice to the president as her reason for withdrawing. She said she needed to maintain the privacy of her White House service, which Bush had vowed to keep confidential.
Analysts say her explanation is a smokescreen for ridding the administration of a political problem at a time when Bush’s approval ratings have fallen to record lows.
“Although Miers said she was concerned about the impact of the request for privileged documents from the White House, this seems like more of a distraction from pending indictments in the Plamegate scandal. We can now expect Bush to nominate an extreme right-wing federal judge,” said Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild.
As Republicans questioned whether Miers was competent enough to serve on the country’s highest court, Democrats were skeptical about whether she was against a woman’s right to abortion, a hugely divisive issue that could come before the Supreme Court. A make-or-break Senate confirmation hearing for Miers was to have started Nov. 7.
The timing of Miers withdrawal came on a day when Washington was awaiting the announcement of the decision by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald whether he will file charges against some senior Bush Administration officials.
