The Miers resignation coming today, when it is likely for indictments to be filed, is not a coincidence. This will muddy the news cycle and allow pundits to talk about something other than the indictments for a few hours, allowing dittoheads and Fox News an excuse to underplay what is likely to be a very bad weekend news cycle and for this administration.
But more importantly, it is not a victory. Why below the cut.
Harriet Miers was not a good candidate for the Supreme Court. There is no doubt about that. But the opportunity to have a White House insider testify under oath about her legal work in the White House while the impending indictments were coming out was political gold.
In addition, she was likely the closest thing to a moderate we would ever see out of this administration. Let us not forget that O'Connor was a conservative. Sure, was relatively moderate when standing next to Reinquist, Scalia and Thomas, but in the larger sense I suspect she may have been no father to the left than Miers. It is true she was a Bush loyalist, but he only has three years left, at best. Not to Mention she was no spring chicken, as compared to the relatively youthful 50 year old Roberts.
The next nominee will be a strict constructionist, which is worse, and will not be able to give us the political fireworks we had hoped from Miers.
This is classic Rove, try to hide the issue you don't like behind a bigger story. In this case the Miers failure is the lesser of two evils. It will only half work this time, but this isn't good news.