You won't have Harriet Miers to kick around anymore

She's officially withdrawn her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court:

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice Thursday in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism about her qualifications.

Bush said he reluctantly accepted her decision to withdraw, after weeks of insisting that he did not want her to step down. He blamed her withdrawal on calls in the Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration has insisted were protected by executive privilege.

I'm sure Miers is a good lawyer, and I'm sure she'll land on her feet. (Perhaps she could be appointed to a lower federal court, as Mickey Kaus has suggested.) But she simply wasn't qualified for the highest court in the land, and this will likely save President Bush from a devastating schism within his own party and, perhaps, her nomination being defeated in the Senate.

But whoever is nominated in her place will almost certainly be more ideologically conservative, so I think we're just going to see one controversial nomination replaced with another. The difference is, next time around it will be Democrats trying to stop it. (As some commentators have suggested, perhaps Bush will say "they want a conservative? I'll give 'em a conservative!" and nominate Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Bork is too right-wing even for me, but by God, it would be awesome political theater.)

Posted by damian at October 27, 2005 10:56 AM | TrackBack