Miers' purpose: Encourage conflict to downplay disaster

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Answered Prayers
How Bush lost the Miers fight.
By John Dickerson
Posted Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005, at 9:28 AM PT

Thanksgiving came early this year

When Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination, religion was once again at the heart of the drama. "Thank God," said one senior Republican Hill staffer in an e-mail. "Amen," a top Bush adviser wrote. Another top GOP staffer reported receiving a string of BlackBerry messages forwarding news alerts followed simply by short prayers of thanksgiving...

In the end, the documents issue provided the face-saving cover that columnist Charles Krauthammer suggested they would. Each side played to type: Sen. Brownback took to the cameras to lament the impasse over the documents. The White House framed Miers' withdrawal as a principled stand to protect a prerogative of the office. After a long intraparty fight, everyone embraced the illusion as the first act of reconciliation...

Is there any good news in this for the White House? Inside the West Wing, the fever might break: Aides have suffered day after day as Miers' chances diminished; now they can fight for a new, presumably more defensible, pick. Also, a replacement nomination—which officials say may be announced as soon as tomorrow—gives Bush an opportunity to change the story line of conflict inside the GOP. A new choice the right applauds may bring the fractured party back into line. "If he chooses a solid conservative, this is the opportunity he needs to shore up the base on the one issue that unites all," says a senior Republican strategist. "It won't just shore them up—they will be excited because they will think, rightly, they got it done."

Bush's next nominee is almost certain to kick off a fight with Democrats, which will further animate the GOP base. In their wildest dreams, Bush advisers hope that a big messy Supreme Court fight not only invigorates the right again but distracts the country from the indictments everyone supposes are coming tomorrow from Patrick Fitzgerald. Think of it as encouraging conflict to downplay disaster.

http://www.slate.com/id/2128904/