Disrobed

Part I: WHY WE LOSE ONE: "Is This It?" I was still in bed when the cell phone and the BlackBerry came to life. I tried to ignore the ringing and whizzing sounds and catch some more sleep, but the noise wouldn't stop. It wasn't just a few calls and e-mails, but a whole stream of them pouring in at once. I realized something must have happenedsomething big. That "something big" became clear once I checked the BlackBerry: President George W. Bush had just announced his nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Courthis White House counsel, Harriet Miers. And as one of the urgent e-mails instructed me, I had a conference call about Miers in just momentsa call with the White House team defending the president's pick. Who on earth is Harriet Miers? I thought. Only days earlier I had attended the formal swearing-in ceremony of Chief Justice John Roberts in the East Room of the White House, and through my work as an officer of the Federalist Society, the nation's most prominent conservative legal organization, I knew the members of the White House team advising the president on Supreme Court nominations. Still, the Miers pick surprised me. When the conference call began, I listened intently as the group, made up of reputable conservatives and led by former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, made the case for Miers. They emphasized her loyalty to the president and her accomplishments as an attorney in Texas. But then something strange happened: They stopped talking, when it seemed they had only begun their case. Maybe I was still groggy. I had jotted down only a few notesgeneric comments about the nominee's view that "the role of the judiciary should be limited" and her vow to "strictly apply the laws and the Constitution." Surely there was more to say for Harriet Miers's qualifications, a stronger case to make? I had yet to hear anything about Miers that convinced me that she was a committed conservative. I had publicly supported the Roberts nomination and expected to do the same for this one. I naturally began searching my mind for ways to phrase the case for Miers in the inevitable television debates I'd be engaged in with liberals. Then I realized, Forget the Left, what would I say to my friends on the Right about the pick? I struggled to convince myself that this was a good conservative candidate. So finally I piped up with a question. "Is this it?" The point was, when you're talking about the highest court in the land, the president must compile a formidable case for his nominee. The White House team hadn't done it. And as I now listened to them repeat the same few talking points, it became clearas it soon would to the rest of the conservative movementthat there really wasn't more to the case for Harriet Miers. I left the call unconvinced and a bit confused. After conservatives had spent years waiting for an opportunity to change the balance of the Supreme Court, was Miers really the best pick? Not at all. And so, like many other conservatives, I breathed a sigh of relief when Miers withdrew her name from consideration and the president nominated a judge with unquestionably strong conservative credentialsSamuel Alitoin her place. A bullet dodged, perhaps. But relieved as we all were, no one on the Right should make the mistake of celebrating this near-miss as a victory for the conservative cause or for the country. We should be worrieddeeply worried. Think about it: How could someone like Harriet Miers come so close to sittiSmith, Mark W. is the author of 'Disrobed ' with ISBN 9780307339256 and ISBN 0307339254.