Harriet Miers is gone, but for one member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she will not be forgotten.  When he was responding in a television interview to the news of Ms. Mier's withdrawal, Arlen Specter teared up. The liberal Republican from Pennsylvania reacted as if his puppy just died.  I suspect he was looking forward to treating Ms. Miers, in the now cancelled hearings before his committee, as a little sister who needs big brother to guide her on the first day at a new school.  Specter may not have the same feeling with the next nominee from President Bush, who, I suspect, will loose a big dog from the Republican judicial 'bench'.

This just may be part of the deal Bush had with Specter.  During the summer, most knew that there would be two and perhaps three openings on the Supreme Court that the President would have to fill in his second term. With the taste of filibusters in everyone's chops, perhaps a Miers—type was to be a swish—full of Listerine to the whole process: an anti—septic that would cleanse the palate.  If she were to make it through, fine.  If not, Bush would go for the spicy—hot conservative and Specter would back away from the table. 

Bush is thought to be off his game right now.  There is the Katrina aftermath and Rove and Libby 'distraction'.  But the President is moving forward with a reconstruction plan in the Gulf Coast which will incorporate a number of conservative principles (school vouchers and reduced regulation construction zones, for instance) that will rock liberal theology off the tiny perch it's been tip—toeing on in the face of election loss after election loss.  And he described the rumors of indictments in the CIA leak case as 'background noise.'

This President is not a fool.  Leftists have begrudgingly learned this and, in the coming months (when they stop patting themselves on the back), the conservatives who berated Bush for the Miers pick in the first place, will learn this too.

J. James Estrada  10 27 05