Here we go again; more news on Harriet Miers:
- The AP (via Yahoo) has President Bush defending Miers’ conservatism by saying that “part of Harriet’s life is her religion.” I believe I noted that before (can’t remember if it was here or elsewhere) that’s all well and good, but that’s like defending Jimmy Carter’s “conservative credentials” by saying that he is an evangelical Christian.
- James Dobson, in an interview this morning, said that Miers wasn’t the first choice, and that some of the other candidates withdrew their names because of the toxic nature of the process. This reads like a pre-emptive attempt to sell Miers the same way Anthony Kennedy was sold. I want names of who withdrew.
- In today’s OpinionJournal’s Political Diary, John Fund takes on Dobson’s claim that other candidates withdrew-
Another element of the White House spin machine surfaced yesterday as James Dobson, a leader of evangelical Christians, revealed that Karl Rove had informed him that Ms. Miers was selected in part because other qualified women declined to put their families through the rigors of the confirmation process. Judge Priscilla Owen, who only this spring won confirmation to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after a grueling two-year battle, was cited.
But apparently that simply isn’t the case. Judge Owen did not ask to be taken off the short list of nominees and Manuel Miranda, a former legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, says there is now compelling evidence that some Bush aides exaggerated potential problems with other nominees in an effort to promote Ms. Miers, who herself was in charge of the vetting process.
There’s a name, but that’s a name that didn’t do what Dobson claimed.
Back to My FBI by Louis Freeh.
Revisions/extensions – Added John Fund’s explosion of Dobson’s claim of other nominees withdrawing, and altered the timestamp due to the nature of this.
