I worked with Miers at the White House. Though my interaction with her was limited, since I was merely a Presidential Writer and she was the Staff Secretary, I had a unique experience with her. In 2001, I was given the task of writing the President's Christmas message to the nation….
The director of correspondence and the deputy of correspondence edited and approved the message and it was sent to the Staff Secretary's office for the final vetting. Miers emailed me and told me that the message might offend people of other faiths, i.e., that the message was too Christian. She wanted me to change it. I refused to change the message (In my poor benighted reasoning, I actually think that Christmas is an overtly Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ and the beginning of the redemption of man.).
The director and deputy of correspondence supported me. I even emailed Ken Mehlman (then the Political Director at the White House, now the Republican National Committee Chairman), to see what he thought about the message. He was not offended by it in the least. Miers insisted that I change the tone of the message. I again refused, and after several weeks, the assignment was taken out of my hands. I was later encouraged to apologize to Miers. I did not apologize.
…Miers purposefully sought to dilute the Christianity of the message, thus revealing to me at least a willingness to compromise unnecessarily without outside pressure. That is my opinion based off that experience and I would be more than happy to be proved wrong.
What the hell was Bush smoking with this nomination? Granted, the guy who wrote this is a pretty hardcore Christian type, but that's probably why he was hired to write for Bush in the first place. Here's how he starts out his thoughts on the Miers nomination:
Now I have just a few problems with this nomination. First, I wanted a brawl. I wanted an in-your face, strong conservative nominee with a proven track-record, like a Mike Luttig or a Janice Rogers Brown, that would clear the benches and be a showdown with the left. I’m tired of how the left in America has used the Supreme Court, and the rest of the federal judiciary, to tear apart the moral fabric of this nation. I’m tired that the left has been advancing its cause through the court system because it knows its causes cannot win at the ballot box.
The are plenty of people in Bush's base on the same wavelength as this guy. Dobson's obvious scrambling to endorse her notwithstanding, I don't think any of them are going to be excited about Miers on the Court at all.
Looking at the White House in the last two months, it is clear they are operating in full-panic mode now. And unlike past moments leading to bold and ballsy moves, Bush is really running from a fight on this one, and screwing up everything else, to boot.
[via Carpetbagger]
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