Miers

Some on the Right are having fits regarding the Miers appointment. They are finding out what those of us who can be objective have been seeing throughout the entire Bush Presidency. Two Term President Bush will tell people what they want to hear, knowing he is going to do whatever he wants when it comes decision time. But the flurry of dissent is reminiscent of the Filibuster Battle.

Remember how the Right got all in a tizzy when the Filibuster deal went through. Some on the Left weren’t all that pleased either, but seemed content when they heard the Right carping.

With Miers there isn’t much outrage at all from the Left, and there is significant infighting on the Right. Hewitt is one of the leaders of the ‘It will be just fine’ brigade, while the far Right is in solid ‘but Bush owes us’ mode.

However, Mitch’s take yesterday seems like the most sensible ‘hunch’ I have seen from either side, and one I think is spot on.

My hunch - and it's just a hunch, although it seems good enough for Hugh Hewitt - is that the President knows Miers well enough to know that, despite dalliances with the Democrats, she's reliably conservative enough in her legal views to be an improvement over O'Connor. He's learned a lesson from the failures of his father, who nominated a dark horse more or less unknown to him in David Souter.

With this, Bush:

* Conserves political capital for the battles he's fighting right now - over the war and hurricane recovery
* Moves the court incrementally to the right. Think about it; is a court with Roberts and Miers more conservative than one with Rehnquist and O'Connor?
* Saves political capital for the battle over the Stevens seat, which may well open up later in his term, and will constitute a battle royale. Stevens, a paleoliberal nominated by Woodrow Wilson Jimmy Carter, is a seat the Dems know they have to keep rigidly left of center.

I don’t think the President is the most brilliant man Miers’ has met, even though she claims that. But I don't think he is the fool that many on the Left decree. To me, this choice is a calculated risk, supported by Rove, and encouraged by the inner circle. I don’t underestimate this administration any longer. And anyone that thinks this is a change in Bush strategy, or even a bone to the Left better watch their backs.

The President knows exactly what he is doing, and he knows exactly where Miers’ stands on the ideological issues that are at stake. I credit him for this stealth pick, but cringe every time he says’ She was the best candidate’, cause she isn’t. THAT is where my true concern is. President Bush thinks he can bold face lie to the American people and we’ll except it.

Not me, and it appears, not some on the Right either.

Flash