Miers Withdraws



Best. Governor. Ever. (image via dallasnews)

Miers withdraws. Was it all, in the end, some supersecret evil-genius ploy by Senator Harry Reid to steal the last remaining huffs of oxygen out of the Bush Administration? We'll never know. Again, we cannot say this was out of the blue. As we blogged:

"As we said Thursday, we cannot possibly see -- logically -- how Miers could be confirmed if the Democrats and Republican conservatives combine forces on the perfectly defensible charge of 'Swell Person: but clearly unqualified; Next?' (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment)

"Of course, The President would want -- but probably not ask out-and-out directly -- for Miers to gently withdraw from consideration, thus saving the embarassment. There is nothing in Ole Harriet's psychological profile, by the way, that suggests that she has ever denied the President any of his whims. This way, politically at least, The President could, ostensibly, save the next three years (A public Borking and Senate defeat of Miers would all but certainly signal with a brutal finality the utter 'lame-duckness' of this Administration)."

And so, Miers is saved from aggressive questioning on American held detainees. "The process" will now duly be blamed. References to Clarence Thomas's "high-tech lynching" will be brought up. "Borking" will be opined about. Chris Matthews will begin "Hardball" tonight with, "Is the process for nominating a Supreme Court Justice becoming too contentious? God, I tell ya .." And, unfortunately, the very real fact that Miers simply wasn't qualified will be lost in all the rhetorical blather.

(Richard Botto, could you email me? I don't have your new email addy)