This is purely conjecture, but I have a theory on why Bush picked Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. I've been toying with the theory since she was first nominated, but
this article in USA Today, about who was involved in the selection process, prompted me to write this diary. Two other facts that are the basis for the theory are Harriet Miers' age and her closeness to George Bush.
In short, Bush never intended for Miers to actually end up on the court, but was only using her to open up the door for a hard-core right-wing candidate.
When Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the most suprising thing to me was her age. At 60, Miers might have 15 years or so on the bench. Why wouldn't Bush pick someone younger who would likely be on the bench 20 or 25 years? Perhaps, I thought, Bush doesn't really expect her to be confirmed.
And then in the USA Today article, we find out that Miers was not interviewed by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, or others who were involved in interviewing John Roberts before he was nominated. In fact, Miers only "spoke with her deputy William Kelley, White House chief of staff Andy Card and the president."
According to reports, Card and Rove have not been getting along so well. And with Rove possibly heading to indictment, it's possible that Card was in charge of overseeing the selection of a replacement for Justice O'Connor and wanted to show his boss that he could be just as Rovian as Rove.
So here's the theory. Card decides Bush should nominate someone who Democrats have indicated would be an acceptable nominee. (Remember, Harry Reid said she was OK by him.) Of course, other Democrats will still attack the nominee and start dredging up whatever dirt they can find. After a few weeks or a month of attacks, Bush holds a press conference to say that the ferocity of the attacks have led Miers to ask that her name be withdrawn. Bush says that they tried to play nice, even picked someone that Democrats liked, and still she got beat up. So no more Mr. Nice Guy. They're going to pick whoever they want and if the Democrats don't like it -- tough. This will win enough sympathy from the people (they hope) that Democrats wouldn't dare try to filibuster the new nominee.
For this to work, the nominee has to be in on it. And it has to be someone who is very close and very loyal to Bush. She has to be willing to be pushed into the spotlight, get dumped on, and then disappear. Miers was perfect for the job.
Only problem is Card is not Rove and didn't foresee the attacks from the right. In the past, when Bush said trust me, the right-wing politicos, pundits, and bloggers trusted him. He thought they'd do the same. When they questioned the selection of Miers, Bush couldn't tell them the real plan because it might get leaked. So they tried to get guys like Dobson to reassure that everything would be okay. Obviously, that didn't go so well.
At some point Bush gets pissed at the righties for attacking his pick -- who the hell do they think they are questioning the President? And he decides to abandon plan A and get Miers confirmed to spite them. Thus the 20-person make-over team. And that's where we are today.
Again, this is nothing but conjecture, but it does fit the facts as we now know them.