Our long national nightmare is over...

Okay. It's been painfully clear that I have ignored the entire Harriet Miers ordeal/nomination for the past month. Although I was posting on rumors leading up to the Roberts nomination, the nomination itself, and then profiles of Roberts afterward, I could not bring myself to post on the Miers nomination.

It appears to me that Ms. Miers is a fine person, and a terrific attorney. Those things are not questioned.

Having said that, I could not post on the subject because she was such a wholly, uncomprehendingly, and embarrassingly unfit and unqualified nominee. The President looks ridiculous, and frankly, he should - because this was a historically bad nomination.

In my opinion there are only two legitimate explanations for such an absolute disaster of a nomination:
-1- This was a grand scheme; appoint an unfit candidate, so that you could follow up with an extemely right-wing ideolouge with a reasonable resume and get her/him passed with little effort. This is intriguing, but such a scheme would carry EXTREME risk if the original nomination was actually confirmed.

-2- The grand jury investigation, and potential indictments, of White House and VP officials seriously had this Admin. distracted - and those people with the power in the Admin, the decision makers (Rove, Cheney, Libby) were unable to focus on the Supreme Court nomination - leaving Bush to decide on his own, and he bungled that choice. I think that is the more reasonable assumption.

Regardless, it's good to know that as nice a person, and as good a lawyer as Ms. Miers may be, that she will not be sitting on the Supreme Court bench. Now, we must hope that a qualified, good nominee (such as C.J. Roberts) will be brought forth.

More info here:
Miers withdraws Supreme Court nomination
Miers Nomination Withdrawn
Miers withdraws nomination
Nominee Failed to Win Support of Key Senators and Conservatives
Miers Withdraws
Absolutely pathetic drivel
Miers withdrawal coverage
Interesting reports starting to emerge…