Harriet Miers: Maybe Not

George Will: Why Did Bush Nominate Miers? (link to column)

Manuel Miranda: Who Harriet Miers is Not (link to Human Events column)

Bill Kristol: THE WEEKLY STANDARD (Fox News)

ANCHOR: Joining us now that talk to talk about President Bush's second nominee, Fox News Political Analyst and Editor of the Weekly Standard Bill Kristol. Are you surprised?

KRISTOL: I am surprised, yes.

ANCHOR: Because why? Because she doesn't have judicial experience? Because why?

KRISTOL: Well, both -- it would be hard to make the case she was the most distinguished candidate available to the President and there's not much on her record that proves she will do what the President has said he wants to do and what conservatives have wanted to do for two or three decades which is to move the court in the direction of constitutionalism and restraint. I talked to five Republicans and Democrats and they're demoralized.

ANCHOR: Disappointed, but clearly, this is a woman that the president knows pretty well. He must feel like he has a good handle on how she would rule.

KRISTOL: I guess. I don't know if he's discussed complicated issues of constitutional law with her. I mean, he's passed over conservative judges including female judges who have long and distinguished records on the federal court, on the state supreme courts. Maybe he's right. Maybe Harriet Miers is really -- she's obviously a capable lawyer. Maybe she'll be a first-rate justice and it looks like a capitulation. Looks like he was unwilling to put up Priscilla Owen or other distinguished female conservative judges who -- about whom there would have been a fight, but a fight on judicial philosophy. A fight that most I know would have welcomed. He put up someone with no judicial record and it's hard to see that as anything more than flinching from a fight.

ANCHOR: Are they -- does that mean he'll lose conservative members?

KRISTOL: I think almost all of them will go along with him. Of course, the hearings become more important. Let's see how she answers various questions about her judicial philosophy. I don't think it's a sure thing. And I think the Democrats will go after her. They'll do a big investigation. She has never been confirmed by the Senate. I'm sure there are no scandals, but all kinds of stuff can come up when one looks into someone's background. Votes at the city council, all kinds of stuff. The Democrats will give her a tough time. I think they'll accept her, as they regard this as another O'Connor or another Souter. So the question for me, do elected officials stand up and say, this is not what we wanted, Mr. President. It isn't what you said you would do. This is not a Scalia or a Thomas or a Rehnquist or for that matter, John Roberts, in terms of quality of pick and proven quality on the record.

ANCHOR: Well, this president hasn't backed away from a fight in the past. It would seem that he would have been willing to fight this one out, if he really thought that Priscilla Owen for instance was a better nominee.

KRISTOL: Yeah. That's why I was surprised. I expected the President to pick someone -- the President put Priscilla Owen in the Circuit -- nominated her in 2001 and 2002 and that signaled that he thought she would be a good federal judge. Harriet Miers is a competent lawyer and able woman who has worked loyally for the President for 10 years. He didn't put her on a court to suddenly elevate her to the Supreme Court. I think it's risky politically and I think it sends a bad signal. I mean, these conservative women who have been judges, who have been making the case for constitutional constitutionalism for five or 10 years, and they're passed over for someone with no record, that's hard to explain.

ANCHOR: The conservatives you're talking to and presumably they're the stronger voices from that side of the political spectrum, if they are disappointed, that doesn't bode particularly well for this nomination. I mean, I imagine she would be confirmed, but it doesn't bode well for a time -- for the president at a time when he is trying to build political support in the wake of the hurricanes and the Iraq war and everything else.

KRISTOL: Well, that's the question, Jon. Obviously, elected officials have different reactions in public than in private and they have different reactions than commentators. So he'll get a lot of support from leading Republican senators and I think from some people who want to be on the team with the President. But I think it's worrisome, if you're a conservative who wants this President to fight his way through on the big issues, I think it's very hard to make the case that this is a fighting move by the President.

ANCHOR: Bill Kristol from The Weekly Standard, and a Fox News Analyst, thank you.

Brownback skeptical on Miers nomination
SAM HANANEL
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback is greeting the nomination of Harriet Miers for the U.S. Supreme court like many other conservatives - with skepticism.

Brownback, a Republican, said Tuesday he is disappointed Bush did not pick a candidate with a clearer track record on conservative issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

"There's precious little to go on and a deep concern that this would be a Souter-type candidate," he said referring to Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a little-known judge nominated for the court by the first President Bush who later turned out to be liberal on the bench.

"The circumstances seem to be very similar," Brownback said. "Not much track record, people vouching for her, yet indications of a different thought pattern earlier in life."

Brownback, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he hopes to learn more about Miers' background when he formally meets with her in his Senate office on Thursday.

"I have not come to any conclusions, but there's a great deal of skepticism about her as a candidate," he said.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, also a Republican, issued a statement praising Miers as a "trailblazer for women" in the legal profession.

"I look forward to learning more about her qualifications for the Supreme Court through the confirmation hearings," Roberts said.

Miers, 60, is Bush's trusted White House counsel. Though she has a lengthy record as a lawyer in private practice and a public official in Texas, she has no experience as a judge.

Brownback's views reflected the opinion of other conservatives, who hoped Bush was ready for a fight with Democrats over an outspoken conservative nominee in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says conservatives have faith in Bush's judgment, but that they would have preferred a nominee with a documented conservative track record. Perkins has not taken a position on the nomination, saying he will be looking for clues to Miers' judicial philosophy during her confirmation hearings.

Democrats, meanwhile, appeared to be approaching Miers' nomination cautiously, though Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday he was "very happy that we have someone like her" to fill the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Brownback said he is concerned about Miers' political ties to some Democrats. She contributed $1,000 to Al Gore in his failed 1988 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and gave the same amount that year to Texas Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, according to research by Political Money Line, a nonpartisan campaign finance tracking service.

But she has contributed money to Republicans too, including President Bush. The practice of giving money to both sides of the aisle is not unusual among members of large law firms like the one Miers worked for in Dallas.

For now, though, Brownback is withholding judgment, listening to what others have to say and gleaning information from the press.

"The best thing she's got going for her is President Bush's consistency on judicial nominations," he said.