Category: richard stevenson

Daily Briefing: 'From Hostility to Silence to Praise'

• Bush nominates Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court; seen as "a woman who broke barriers in the male-dominated Texas legal world but brings no judicial experience or constitutional background to her new assignment." Bush: "I know her heart. I know her character." [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, WT]
• Miers likely to avoid partisan fight. Kristol: "It's hard to explain why Harriet Miers is the right pick unless you're trying to avoid a fight about someone who has expressed a conservative constitutional philosophy... it's demoralizing for the president to pass over a host of publicly identified conservative constitutionalists." [WP, NYT]
• DeLay is indicted for alleged money laundering; former majority leader says prosecutor "is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate." Punishment for money laundering can be life in prison. [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, USAT]
• Many conservatives express skepticism, disappointment about Miers; responses range "from hostility to silence to praise." [WP, LAT, NYT, WT, USAT, USAT]
• Nomination viewed as "more like a bunt than a bid for a home run," writes Ron Brownstein. Bush "has no appetite, at a time when he and his party are besieged by problems, for an all-out ideological fight," suspects Richard Stevenson. [LAT, NYT]
• Critics allege cronyism, the perception of which "is especially risky because it comes at a time when the White House has been accused of putting under-qualified political associates in top positions throughout the government." [LAT, USAT]

• Andrew Card initiated a secret vetting of Miers last summer. Former White House counsel: "The president is very, very confident in his judgments about people, and he likes to reward loyalty." [WP, USAT]
• Miers' "very little record" on abortion is a challenge to pro-choice groups. [NYT]
• Colleagues say Miers is a "loyalist renowned for her long hours but not hard-right ideology"; drives a red Mercedes. [WP, LAT, NYT, USAT]
• Harry Reid, Laura Bush provided early support of Miers' nomination; Democrats seem optimistic. [LAT, USAT]
• Miers has donated over $20,000 to GOP causes since 1991. [LAT]
• Roberts survives his first day at the Supreme Court. [NYT]
• Roy Moore, vocal advocate of the Ten Commandments monument, will run for governor of Alabama. [LAT]

READ MORE: 2006 , Democrats , Republicans , SCOTUS , White House , abortion , alabama , andrew card , confirmation hearings , conservatives , cronyism , george w. bush , harriet miers , harry reid , john g. roberts , laura bush , mercedes , richard stevenson , ronald brownstein , roy moore , tom delay , william kristol

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