It's a bitter pill to swallow, but there are a number of reasons, both judicial and political, why it would be bad for the Court and a lost opportunity for the Democrats if Miers were rejected or withdrawn. There are a few undeniable truths we should face:
- If Miers is not confirmed, the next nominee will be more conservative. She will have been shot down by the bombthrowers on the Right, and the only option Bush will have will be to nominate someone more on the record as being a nutjob. I agree that we cannot effectively evaluate how right wing she is; what we can do is say that the next nominee is sure to be farther to the right still.
- We cannot torpedo every nominee. Eventually, one must be confirmed. That, alas, is Bush's right as president. We might as well confirm the most moderate nominee we're going to get. I for one, prefer intellectual-lightweight Miers to someone like Luttig, who is both qualified and clearly to her right.
- If Democrats support her, it creates room for a number of Republicans running for president or otherwise trying to please the base to oppose her, because they know she will be confirmed and Bush will not be embarassed by a rejected candidate. This divides the GOP even more, and politically weakens them.
- If she is on the Court, we can run against her and mock her. What are they going to say? "It was you who voted for her"? It was Bush who nominated her, and we were deferring to the President's right to choose justices, regardless of how much we disagree ideologically. If she's not on the bench, she ceases to be an easy exemplar of the corruption and cronyism of the Bush administration.
- If Democrats join Republicans in rejecting her, it makes the Republicans look principled. That is, Bush may look like a cronyist (is that a word?), but hey, there are enough checks in place within his own party that nothing's getting out of hand. If she gets through, then the checks are obviously not in place.
I realize it's a bit cynical, but we really can't go anywhere but down if Miers is not confirmed. I think we should do the math and make sure that the minimum number of Democratic senators required to get her confirmed vote for her, because the lower the total of ayes, the more weakened Bush is. But we have to make sure we get to 50. Actually... 50 would be ideal, because it would be pretty symbolically powerful to have Cheney be the final vote.