(Sorry, that title is just to get the goats of those who think diaries shouldn't be comments on other diaries.)
The arguments against filibustering or fighting the confirmation of Harriet Miers mostly seem to boil down to saying that we could do worse, much worse, and in any case, there's very little chance that we'll stop the nomination (absent a coalition revolt with the right wing).
But the fact that we are unlikely to be able to stop the nomination is what allows us to fight as hard as we like without worry. What is the harm in fighting? Georgia10 enumerates some of the many practical advantages to be had in the hearings, and Meteor Blades enumerates the principled reasons for opposing her. Most of us agree that she is both far to the right of our principles, and obviously unqualified. Who cares if we could do worse than her? We won't.
For once, there is no need to muffle your principles with pragmatism. Let your anger at conservative cronyism run free. Fight!
Why not fight?
Are we trying to conserve political capital for something else? No. Do we have another national platform to distract from? No. Will it backfire? Well, has the "obstructionist" charge ever caught on since the Dems because pathetically powerless? No. Democratic party ops may worry, but with the MSM already calling her a crony, and all the other anti-GOP mess in the air, this whole country is with us in a way that hasn't happened for years. The payoffs, as Georgia10 say, are great and varied. And not fighting, as Meteor Blades says, is a pathetic and unnecessary capitulation. For once our politics and our pragmatics are in line.
And if she is, by some miracle, stopped? Wow, imagine the shot in the arm that will give the left. Imagine how weak GWB and the GOP will be then. Maybe in retaliation they'll nominate someone more to the right, but stopping that will be even easier. Maybe at some point the MSM will start calling us obstructionists along with the GOP--but by then, the rewards will have hugely outnumbered the costs.
Harriet Miers is very very likely to win the confirmation, so fight, fight, fight!