I have two fundamental thoughts about two critically important developing stories- the Fitzgerald investigation and the Miers nomination- and they are related. I don't pretend to know what is going to happen with either, but these are my instincts...
The Fitzgerald investigation is clearly about to wrap up. If he is as competent and honest as we all hope he is, and if he has the evidence we think he might, the largest of all political bombshells is about to drop on the Administration. As some have recently noted, comments by Stephanopolous and others suggest that Bush and Cheney might even be implicated. Even if they're not- even if the evidence only clearly implicates Rove and Libby- this Administration is, effectively, finished. The Miers nomination seals it. Under normal circumstances, the Right Wing would circle the wagons, their mainstream media lackeys would initiate the typical war-of-opinion muddle to confuse the public, and the Administration would march right on with their war on the world. Because of their outrage over Miers, however, the Right might now lack the stomach for the fight. Even more dangerous, for the Administration, they might now not even care. They might start thinking that a President Hastert would be more true to their cause. If that's the case, even the mainstream media will end up playing the scandal straight, and for this criminal cabal, that would be the death knell.
The second point is this (and, again, I'm operating on pure instinct): Miers is not the moderate we all hope she is. She's an evangelical Christian, which means she's probably personally opposed to choice, and in favor of the continued destruction of the wall between church and state; and there's nothing in her resume to suggest she has the intellectual vigor to separate her personal opinions from her potential judicial decisions. Her past donations to Al Gore mean nothing. By 1988, Congressman Gore had quietly distinguished himself as a visionary on environmental issues and on the potential of what became the internet, but Senator Gore was best known for his wife's efforts to increase censorship of pop music. I'm guessing that was a major part of what inspired the Miers donation. A further red flag is her much-touted loyalty to Bush. People are talking about it as yet another indication that Bush favors cronyism over competence, which is bad enough, but in this case, it's a particularly dangerous brand of cronyism. A Bush crony on the Supreme Court probably means more than a mere further loosening of the reins on corporate regulation- it means further assistance in his destruction of civil liberties, and in his pursuit of policies that much of the world views as war crimes. Furthermore, as a close Bush confidant, who helped work Roberts through his nomination process, and who is not known for either her judicial intellect or independence, she very well might end up being nothing more than a Roberts lackey. If she's been dazzled by proximity to a lightweight like Bush, imagine what will happen as she works under a true intellectual- and a true hard-right judicial conservative- like Roberts. My guess? As Thomas is to Scalia, Miers will be to Roberts.