Infighting in the Bush White House: Did CJ John Roberts suggest Harriet Miers? [Updated]
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Washington Post has an online article entitled Book Tells of Inner Circle Dissent [free registration required]. The book in question is Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush by Robert Draper and, according to the article, it reveals interesting turmoil in the Bush White House. Among the more surprising allegations are these concerning Karl Rove:
“Karl Rove told George W. Bush before the 2000 election that it was a bad idea to name Richard B. Cheney as his running mate, and Rove later raised objections to the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court, according to a new book on the Bush presidency.”
The real shocker (to me) is the claim that John Roberts suggested Bush nominate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court:
“It was John G. Roberts Jr., now the chief justice of the United States, who suggested Miers to Bush as a possible Supreme Court justice, according to the book. Miers, the White House counsel and a Bush loyalist from Texas, did not want the job, but Bush and first lady Laura Bush prevailed on her to accept the nomination, Draper writes.”
The article notes Chief Justice Roberts denied this claim through a Supreme Court spokesman and that the book failed to footnote the claim.
I could believe CJ Roberts agreed to the Miers’ nomination if asked for his opinion by President Bush, but I find it hard to accept that Roberts – a relatively new appointee – would suggest someone he (apparently) barely knew.
Some other tidbits: Bush was too “gassed” from a bike ride to handle Katrina and he took a poll of his Cabinet to decide Rumsfeld’s fate.
UPDATE: Jan Crawford Greenburg classifies the Roberts’ story as a Labor Fool’s Day joke. When a story comes down to an unsourced book anecdote and Jan Crawford Greenburg, I’ll take Greenburg. In fact, her column is so good it deserves a separate post.
Check over at Volokh, who are in the process of debunking this report. It’s not sourced to anybody, anonymous or otherwise. I’m not giving the report any credence whatsoever until the author backs it up with a lot more.
PatHMV (0e077d) — 9/3/2007 @ 11:22 amI, too, don’t find it credible that CJ Roberts would suggest Myers as a potential SC justice.
That response by Bush to Katrina also sounds doubtful. That was a disaster that nobody could have prepared for, notwithstanding that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco could have acted more aggressively instead of fighting against one another. Both failed miserably in not telling residents to get out, and that was the problem.
I just got this book yesterday, and if these tidbits mentioned here are representative samples,
RGL (d671ab) — 9/3/2007 @ 11:49 amI wish I had not bought it. I have not heard much about the author, Draper, and I wonder why Bush would have agreed to get interviewed by him. But I will reserve comments until I finish reading the book.
Is there something in the water in DC?
Perhaps, the Mexican drug cartels have been shipping in some really bad s…?
And to think that these people actually take themselves seriously?
Hey Felipe, if you want a new colony:
Another Drew (758608) — 9/3/2007 @ 12:27 pmTake DC, Please!
Here’s the Volokh discussion PatHMV referenced above.
DRJ (bfe07e) — 9/3/2007 @ 12:34 pmHe said, she said.
Roberts may have a different persona in closed meetings. And the tense denial allows that Roberts put up Miers to someone who then suggested her to Bush.
steve (8229c4) — 9/3/2007 @ 1:12 pmI don’t see why Roberts would place himself in such a position, in the first place, or why he would have been consulted except possible to vet a shortlist of candidates (“Which one of these would you be able to work best with, John?”). I find your suggestion credible–my version would be that he assented to a presidential decision that was already made, and told to him at the point when objection was pointless.
And if Rove objected–well, predicting the response of the “base” was part of his job, and if he didn’t foresee their objections to Meiers, then he’s that much less of a political maven.
And Katrina lasted for much longer than the time one needs to recuperate from a long bike ride. That being wiped out might excuse a couple of hours of deputizing (“Here, Brownie, you deal with it, and let me know what’s going on later tonight”) is possible; that it can be blamed for the inertness of federal response for the first several days is stretching it a bit too much.
kishnevi (6910d3) — 9/3/2007 @ 4:40 pmA question, wasn’t there a year when as many as 4 hurricanes hit Florida while George W. was President, and there was no major outcry that I heard over how bad the response was then? Was that because President Bush played favorites or because state officials in Florida were more prepared?
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/3/2007 @ 5:09 pmMD in Philly, well Katrina did a rather large amount of damage but the media created a myth that a delay in Federal response was related to the immediate first response.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/3/2007 @ 5:21 pmMD in Philly,
I would propose that FEMA is prepared for emergencies in the United States of America and not in Western Bangladesh which is what New Orleans really is.
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/3/2007 @ 5:56 pmMD in Philly–one of the best things that Jeb Bush did as governor was to make sure that the state and local governments are prepared for hurricanes. The State of Florida is much better prepared for hurricanes than most states, and needs to be. I think statistically the only state that gets anything close to the number of storms Florida gets is North Carolina. And some of the storms have been doozies. The Lake Okeechobee hurricane eighty years ago also involved a large lake, a collapsed levee and drowning victims that may have been close to three thousand (a full count was never done because apparently many bodies were never recovered). This process began with Andrew, and has been continual, but Jeb made it a priority. And even with the heightened response, things go awry. The state’s line now is that residents must expect to go 72 hours without power, etc. before outside help can actually get to them.
As a indication of how things might have worked if the La/Miss authorities worked like Jeb–Florida emergency response teams were working in Mississipi before anyone from either the Mississipi or federal gov’ts arrived. Jeb sent them there as soon as it was clear Katrina would not hit the Florida panhandle. (Remember that Katrina passed over the city of Miami as a Cat 1 hurricane before reforming in the Gulf and moving to La/Miss, so teams were already working in South Florida.)
Had it been President Jeb Bush instead of President George W Bush, I’m pretty sure Katrina would have been handled much differently.
kishnevi (6910d3) — 9/3/2007 @ 8:46 pmThank you for your comments, but I’m confused by a few things.
First, kishnevi.
You very clearly discuss the difference in the state level of preparedness, but then claim a President Jeb Bush would have done a better job than President George Bush. Are you saying that Jeb Bush would have had a better working FEMA, or that Jeb could have worked better with the locals in Louisiana, or what?
Robin Roberts, you say,”the media created a myth that a delay in Federal response was related to the immediate first response.”
Are you saying the fed response was slow, and/but it had nothing to do with the local response?
My thought had always been, same president, same FEMA, different states, and any deficiencies in the management came from local/state level. While the media was busy blasting how terrible the federal response was, there were also reports that the governor rebuffed early offers of coordinated assistance.
Thanks.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/4/2007 @ 3:34 amAs I recall, Pres. Bush went on TV and practically begged the Louisiana governor to order an evacuation and ask for federal assistance.
I don’t recall that FEMA, once they could legally act, covered themselves in glory, but that could be because the local & state organizations were so unprepared/incompetent. They’d have plenty of incentive to scapegoat the feds.
LarryD (feb78b) — 9/4/2007 @ 6:17 amLarryD-
I don’t recall President Bush going on TV, but I thought that indeed his desire to bring the feds in was rebuffed, as you state. That’s why I am interested in hearing Robin Roberts and kishnevi clarify.
But then again, it’s a minor point of this thread and there are other topics to wax eloquent about.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/4/2007 @ 4:13 pmKishnevi,
Jeb Bush does have a way with hurricane response and, as I recall, he learned it the hard way. For instance, there was widespread criticism of his response to Hurricane Wilma.
It would be nice if every president knew how to do every governor’s job but is it fair or realistic to expect George Bush to tell LA Governor Blanco how to do her job and then to make her do it his way when she won’t?
DRJ (bfe07e) — 9/4/2007 @ 4:27 pm