http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1846664,00.htmlWHEN President Bush shocked supporters and opponents alike a month ago by nominating Harriet Miers, his White House counsel, to the vacancy on the Supreme Court, an intriguing conspiracy theory did the rounds in Washington.
Ms Miers, so self-evidently unqualified for a seat on the nation’s highest court, was a kind of stalking horse, the theory went. The real Bush plan, masterminded no doubt by his Machiavellian amanuensis Karl Rove, was to put an extreme conservative jurist on the court, someone who would vote to overturn abortion rights, outlaw affirmative action and break down the barriers between Church and State.
The problem was that someone like that would have a very tough time getting confirmed by the Senate. Though the Republicans have a majority in the upper house of the Congress, which must approve Supreme Court candidates, the Democrats, who would obviously oppose such a nominee, have enough votes to block his (or her) confirmation.
The best way to proceed, then, was to put up first a candidate the White House knew would get knocked down. Having “regretfully” and “humiliatingly” withdrawn that candidate, the President could then, with heavily orchestrated reluctance and irritation, put up the suitably-qualified favourite.
The Democrats would have a hard time in the court of public opinion if they now took exception to someone who was, whatever their judicial intentions, at least smart, capable and experienced. They wouldn’t want the potential opprobrium of throwing out a second nominee.
Goodbye Harriet. Come on down, Attila.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1846664,00.html