On the day after President Bush’s announcement of Harriet Miers as nominee to
the Supreme Court we are starting to find out very limited information.
President Bush is apparently predicting a fight with this nomination considering
he called a press conference today in which he used his time to mostly reaffirm
his decision.
Abortion rights is going to be the hot topic of this confirmation. While
there is no real paper trail to follow on Miers,
Mercury News has interviewed Lorlee Bartos, who managed Miers run for Dallas
City Council in 1988. Bartos said “She (Miers) is on the extreme end of
the anti-choice movement”. So far NARAL has not come out in opposition of Miers.
During her time as a city councilwoman, Miers did support civil rights for
gay and lesbians, as well as backed AIDS education programs
Time
has learned.
During President Bush’s conference today he made mention of a possible block
by Democrats. Apparently the President hasn’t weighed in with fellow
Republicans, who could also be a hard sell. Senator Sam Bronback (R-Kan) was
questioned today and said he questioned rather Miers has a “firm commitment” to
the “original intent” of the United States constitution. While Brownback did not
come out in full opposition to the nominee, he did pave the way to lead a
Republican opposition to Miers.
This confirmation is most likely not going to be clean and uneventful as the
confirmation of John Roberts. Right now the only real paper trail lies within
the White House, and the President has already said he will invoke executive
privilege to prevent those papers from being released.