Associated Press - Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers Meets with Senators

October 7, 2005
By Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press Writer

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and her White House backers worked Thursday to quell a revolt over her high court nomination among conservatives, who say President Bush promised them a justice who would help swing the court to the right.

"I think the president has created political trouble for himself," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "She may turn out to be a great judge ... but my own reaction to it is that it is not my fight, and I think that's the way that most conservatives feel about it," he said.

Miers spent the day meeting with some of the Senate Judiciary Committee's conservatives, including Jon Kyl of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sam Brownback of Kansas.

Brownback, who is expected to make a bid for the presidency in 2008 as an anti-abortion candidate, said he is prepared to vote against Miers if he finds out he disagrees with her judicial philosophy. But he said he needs more information.

"That portrait is just now taking shape, and I'm not ready to make a call until that portrait is done," he said.

He said he has not received any White House assurances regarding Miers' judicial views, and that she refused to take a position when he asked her about the 1965 Supreme Court ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut that established the right of privacy in the sale and use of contraceptives.

"She did not take a position on it, nor did she say she would take a position on it, nor did she think it appropriate to have a position on it," Brownback said.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, and conservative leaders including Jay Sekulow, Leonard Leo and James Dobson held a national teleconference Thursday with grass-roots conservatives during which the leaders endorsed Miers to replace the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor, whose vote has been critical on issues including abortion and affirmative action.

Three days of lobbying by the White House have not made conservatives feel any better about Bush's 60-year-old White House counsel.

"However nice, helpful, prompt and tidy she is, Harriet Miers isn't qualified to play a Supreme Court justice on 'The West Wing,' let alone to be a real one," columnist Ann Coulter said.

In an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week, two-thirds of those surveyed did not know enough about Miers to have an opinion about her. Just 41 percent said the Senate should confirm her, lower than similar ratings for Chief Justice John Roberts after his nomination; 27 percent said she should not be confirmed; 32 percent were not sure.

Graham, who said he is "predisposed" to support Miers after meeting with her, urged an end to the "cheap shots" against her. "Be quiet for a little bit and listen, just shut up for a few minutes and give the lady a chance to find out who she is," he said.

Graham said conservatives expected Bush to choose a well-known conservative judge, and Miers does not fit that mold.

"The problem that she faces is that everybody was wanting to get geared up for a fight," and they are "a bit disappointed," Graham said. "So conservatives are focused on what Bush didn't do, and what he could have done. Well, soon we'll be focused on what he did do. And what he did do is he picked Harriet Miers."

Miers is getting support from some prominent conservatives.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell said a quick phone call to Bush was all it took for him to give "thumbs up" to Miers.

"I did talk to the White House, I did hear what I needed to hear, and I happen to trust George Bush," Falwell said, according to WDSI-TV in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The White House on Thursday said former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who was ambassador to Germany, will serve as Miers' escort through the confirmation process. Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., did the same for Roberts this summer.

As a senator, Coats pushed legislation to restrict abortion, tried to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts because of grants it made to artists he said mocked God, and led the opposition to allowing gays in the military.

The White House has played up an endorsement of Miers by Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Christian group Focus on the Family. Dobson said he trusted Bush and that Miers appeared to be an outstanding choice.

But on his radio broadcast Wednesday, Dobson said he prayed he was not making a mistake.

A GOP battle over the nomination may hurt the party in the 2006 congressional elections, said Manuel Miranda, who used to work on judicial nominations for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Miranda now runs the conservative Third Branch Conference.