Patterico's Pontifications

10/9/2005

Yes, Harriet Miers Is a Part of Bush’s Legal Team — And That’s Yet Another Concern

Filed under: Judiciary — Patterico @ 5:51 pm



I keep hearing that Harriet Miers was part of the team that helped nominate Bush’s judges. But she was also part of the team that didn’t lift a finger to get Bush’s judges confirmedtelling Senators that the filibuster issue was an internal Senate matter, and leaving fine candidates like Miguel Estrada twisting in the wind:

“The administration has acted as if the president’s job is nominations, not appointment,” said an aide to a top Republican senator. “They’ve made the base happy with lots of good nominations, but they have done zilch to get them confirmed.”

White House officials respond that they mounted a strenuous defense of the filibustered nominees and ultimately got many of them confirmed. And they noted that a great majority of Bush’s nominees have been approved.

Even outside legal advisers said they felt rebuffed by White House officials after they tried to engage the administration on the filibuster issue. They had emphasized privately to the White House that the filibuster was a monumental threat to the president’s authority to name judges of his choosing and urged Bush to become more directly involved.

But Gonzales, who then was the White House counsel, insisted the battle was a Senate issue.

“From the perspective of the White House, this is a matter– an internal Senate matter to be resolved within the Senate,” he told the Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings as attorney general.

Did Harriet Miers disagree? I rather doubt it.

P.S. But isn’t the filibuster an internal Senate matter? Yes, obviously it is. But the judicial filibuster also impinges on the presidential prerogative to get a vote on his nominees, and not have that vote denied by an opposing party that failed to win the election. (Having a vote denied by his own party enforcing the president’s own promises is quite a different matter, in my view.) Bush did indeed have to be careful not to appear to be overstepping. Still, I think he could have been firmer on the issue back when it mattered — especially behind closed doors, with his allies, telling them that he had their back.

One Response to “Yes, Harriet Miers Is a Part of Bush’s Legal Team — And That’s Yet Another Concern”

  1. Unnamed … sources.

    I agree what’s important is what happened off the record. No way the President, any President, could say anything else for public consumption.

    I can find you unnamed sources who’ll report that Dubya offered to let Harry Reid have a threesome with his twins, but Reid held out for including Laura and that busted the deal up.

    Beldar (6b6b0a)


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