Update [2005-10-17 1:28:15 by Armando]: Well now. I think Mr. Dobson's subpoena now is mandatory. Judges Hecht and Kinkeade too.
John Fund has just dropped James Dobson's other shoe--squarely on Harriet Miers.
And size 6 this one isn't.
In a column posted early Monday in the WSJ Opinion Journal, John Fund quotes from notes from a conference call Dobson participated in in which two judges close to Miers assured him that they had spoken with her about Roe v. Wade and that she had indicated she would vote to overturn it.
So
that's what the guy was talking about when he assured his supporters that he knew things "that I probably shouldn't know" about Miers's conservative judicial bona fides.
(Did he lie last week in saying Karl Rove hadn't told him inside info after all? Technically, maybe not: this wasn't a conversation with Rove himself, but it was one that Rove instigated. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge: Mr. Dobson is lucky he wasn't under oath in court the other day. But isn't this the kind of too-clever evasion for which his crowd cheered the impeachment of Bill Clinton?)
What did happen was this:
On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, Mr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the nomination. . . . According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe. . . . on the call were Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Judge Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal trial judge. . . . [Kinkeade] has been a friend of Ms. Miers's for decades. . . . Mr. Dobson introduced them by saying, "Karl Rove suggested that we talk with these gentlemen because they can confirm specific reasons why Harriet Miers might be a better candidate than some of us think."
In the course of "a free-wheeling discussion about many topics," the notes Fund has indicate,
. . . an unidentified voice asked the two men, "Based on your personal knowledge of her, if she had the opportunity, do you believe she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?"
"Absolutely," said Judge Kinkeade.
"I agree with that," said Justice Hecht. "I concur."
Fund goes on to quote an unnamed Senate Judiciary staffer as saying, "If the call is as you describe it, an effort will be made to subpoena everyone on it."
Will this reassure the Religious Right? After all they've invested in righteous rage? Will it be the tipping point for pro-choice Democratic Senators? Do you have to ask?
My friends, let us have a moment of silence. The good lady is toast.