Was the Miers nomination a RESULT of Plamegate?

[Wordie]

Think about it. The Bush Whitehouse, and specifically Karl Rove have been rather distracted for weeks, worrying about the impending indictments. I have a theory: while Rove was busy with Plamegate issues, Bush actually made a decision on HIS OWN. And that explains Miers.

The scary thing is, what's gonna happen once Rove goes down? As bad as Rove is, that's going to leave dimson at the wheel.

[HereSince1628]

1. I rather think it was payback to someone who pissed him off.

Bush is an idiot and really would select the worst candidate possible just to put it to someone.

[bryant69]

2. I think that plays into it

I think it's the Bush version of National Security; they want a justice who is going to let the Executive do whatever it damn well wants to. Issues involving Plame Gate and Guantenemo and the Patriot Act 1 (and probably 2) are likely to appear before the Court at some point, and which way do you think Miers is going to vote?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[johnfunk]

3. Let's not forget that Harry Reid recommended Miers. Can you say sabotage?

ROTFLMAO about what Reid has wrougth!

[Wordie]

6. Yep! There was a thread about that some time ago...what his strategy might

be...now it is revealed in all it's beautiful glory!

[havocmom]

4. In a round about way, yeah. I think it was a move in a pissing contest

between Rove and Cheney.

[leveymg]

5. More likely, the result of Miers' knowledge of what Bush knew before 9/11

and about the resulting cover-up.

Is Miers the CIA briefer who read Bush the 8/6/01 PDB?
by leveymg
Tue Oct 04, 2005 at 10:09:45 AM PDT

Editor & Publisher picked up on a report in the LA Times that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was the briefer who read the notorious August 6, 2001 CIA Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) to President Bush. That is startling news in itself, considering that she's also W's lawyer and advised him about the handling of 9/11 after the attacks.

Here's another unexploded bombshell. Up until now, it has been reported that Bush reviewed the Top Secret PDB with an anonymous "CIA briefer."

This raises a few new questions:

*Is Harriet Miers an employee or operative of the Central Intelligence Agency?

*Or, did someone else in the room read the document to Bush, while Ms. Miers listened?

*What did she advise the President to do, both before and after 9/11, about the terrorist attack?

*What, if anything, will Senators ask her about this subject?

Here's the E&P story:

Miers Briefed Bush on Famous Bin Laden Memo, But Newspapers Handle the AP Photo Quite Differently

By E&P Staff

Published: October 04, 2005 10:45 AM ET

NEW YORK On its front page today, The New York Times publishes a photo of new U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers going over a briefing paper with President George W. Bush at his Crawford ranch, "in August 2001," the caption reads. USA Today and the Boston Globe carried the photo labeled simply "2001," but many other newspapers ran the picture in print or on the Web with a more precise date: August 6, 2001.

Does that date sound familiar? Indeed, that was the date, a little over a month before 9/11, that President Bush was briefed on the now-famous "PDB" that declared that Osama Bin Laden was "determined" to attack the U.S. homeland, perhaps with hijacked planes. But does that mean that Miers had anything to do with that briefing?

As it turns out, yes, according to today's Los Angeles Times. An article by Richard A. Serrano and Scott Gold observes that early in the Bush presidency "Miers assumed such an insider role that in 2001 it was she who handed Bush the crucial 'presidential daily briefing' hinting at terrorist plots against America just a month before the Sept. 11 attacks."

So the August 6 photo may show this historic moment, though quite possibly not . . . Two others in the background are Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and Steve Biegun of the national security staff."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001221205


Permalink | Default Story Only| 25 comments | Post A Comment | Edit Story

Maybe that's why he trusts her? (none / 0)

Or that is her power over him?

[Wordie]

7. Hey...that info will get lost in this thread. Needs a top post, maybe LBN.

Please top post this; it's important for people to see.

Edited to add:
OR, has it already been posted? I perhaps read it too quickly, now I'm not sure where it was originally posted...

[leveymg]

8. It was posted a week ago, both here and at DKOS

The underlying story in E&P got some play in the MSM. My contribution is the observation that 9/11 Commission identified the person who read Bush the PDB on 8/6/01 as an "unidentified CIA briefer." I also am the one who originally raised implications that this has for Miers' likely role in advising Bush on how to deal with the al-Qaeda threat and with the public after 9/11, and suggested that these questions be aired publicly during her confirmation hearings.

As we are seeing, Miers may withdraw her SCOTUS nomination before she can be questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[Wordie]

9. It does clearly show that she has been in the thick of it at the Bush

Whitehouse for quite some time. If she read the PDB to Bush, or simply was there when it was read/discussed, and did NOT pressure him to take such a warning seriously, then this shows her judgement to be as bad as his.

I am somewhat sceptical about the idea of Miers having direct ties to the CIA, however. After all, even the photo itself had been identified rather vaguely, so it is more likely just an error (or an effort by the Whitehouse to direct attention/blame toward the CIA). But the other stuff is weighty enough.

Still, great catch on your part to notice the connection.

[leveymg]

10. The suggestion that she may be CIA is more tongue-in-cheek than serious.

I don't think it makes any difference whether she was the reader. If they discussed the PDB, 9/11 or damage control afterwards, I would demand to know what was said between them, if I were on the Judiciary Committee.

But, I seriously doubt she's ever going to answer any questions to that Committee, unless it's part of some future inquest into the high crimes and misdemeanors of this President.

Anyone who says Shrub is the "most intelligent man I ever met" is automatically disqualified in my book, anyway.

Thanks.

[Wordie]

11. LOL! Today's TRUE events are so strange, no wonder I didn't catch that!

[Neil Lisst]

12. Wordie, I think you have a good insight.

Someone has referred to Rove as Bush's Brain, and that is an apt description. It is sound to infer that Rove was NOT involved in Bush's decision to name Miers. Any decision that stupid had to come from Dubya's own alcohol shrunken brain.

Because Karl is in so much trouble, and because Bush is floundering, looking for that home run pitch, he allowed his own stupidity to guide him.

It backfired badly. Rove would have known better than abandon the far right base.

[jazzjunkysue]

13. Yes: Karl was not home, so, B** had to make his own choice, like a big boy

Well, at least he got to be the president for a day or two with Rove gone.