...keeping the powder dry

As I would imagine everyone not living under a rock would know by now, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to take the place of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on SCOTUS. Since little is known regarding Ms. Miers (other than being Bush's Chief Counsel), I'd like to withold comment pro or con, but from what I can see her nomination is consistent with Bush's at-times Zen-like, inscrutable administrative policies that have at once inflamed liberals while at the same time had conservatives scratching their heads. At this point and time, the woman seems an enigma. This from here:

Some old stuff on Miers:
AP, 2/2/1992, on whether as President she would ask a potential nominee how he or she would rule on abortion:

“Nominees are clearly prohibited from making such a commitment and presidents are prohibited from asking for it,” said Harriet Miers, a Dallas lawyer and president-elect of the State Bar of Texas.

In 1993, after the ABA had voted to adopt a pro-choice stance, the State Bar of Texas, under Miers’ leadership, fought to have the issue put to a vote of the full ABA membership. She said:

“If we were going to take a position on this divisive issue, the members should have been able to vote.”

While at the same time, from here:

It's a good sign for Bush and his attorney-turned-nominee when the first words from Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid are these: "I like Harriet Miers."

Now that endorsement has to send more chills down the spine of conservatives than an outbreak of herpes at a swingers' club; and perhaps that may be Reid's very intention, to split the base from the national GOP. Again, at this point I am neither pro nor con. There is no judicial record to review (nor was there for Justice Rehnquist). But conservatives have been burned before. Perhaps it would be much easier for Bush's base to trust him on this one had he remained true to his conservative soul when forming policy relating to illegal immigration and expanding the size of government.

With this appointment being all-but-blessed by Harry Reid, I believe that it will be conservatives taking the lion's share of the interest in the nomination hearings, not the liberals.