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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Elections — Comments (34) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

There was some good stuff this week. No talk of Cindy or Brownie – no McCain, Hagel, or Biden, though Lindsey "14 Gangster" Graham has become something of a celebrity.

Pat Buchanan (MTP) said that he the President doesn't want to overturn Roe v. Wade. He added that he would vote NO on Miers, insisted that he'd change his mind if she did well in committee, then called for her withdrawal before she reached the committee. Southern Baptist Convention director Dr. Richard Land said that he trusts the President and is supporting Miers.

Senator Lindsey Graham (FNS) said that conservative commentators would come around to Miers as she is further revealed during the nominating process, something the WH surely promised him. Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht (FNS) said that Miers will not quit. Period.

Gary Bauer wants Armageddon (FNS), and Sam Brownback (FTN) was also anxious for a row. He's more upset with the process that gives us stealth nominees..

Chuckie Schumer (FTN) said that Rove called Dobson and he demands that Dobson be called before the Senate Judiciary Committee to reveal all he knows. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (TW) said that if Dobson rises to the level of callability, he'll be called. He accused Miers's critics of being a "lynch mob," which brings back memories of another hearing in which Specter participated, involving another nominee considered by some to be unqualified: Clarence Thomas. So is the current situation a "high-tech lynching of an uppity… White House Counsel Harriet Miers"?

Pat Leahy intoned on TW: "Iraq, Katrina, and gasoline prices."

Read the show-by-show review beneath the fold:

PAT BUCHANAN AND RICHARD LANE ON MTP. Tim Russert rolled out the carpet for former Nixon staffer Pat Buchanan and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, anti- and pro-Harriet respectively. Buchanan argued that Harriet Miers's qualifications were "utterly non-existent." He called her nomination a "faith based initiative," in that the President is asking people to trust him. Dr. Lamb countered that the President has "earned the trust of conservatives" on the issue of judicial nominations.

Buchanan insisted that the "White House has backed down," chickening-out before the Harry Reids and the Ted Kennedys. Buchanan inexplicably asserted that the President has "retreated from Reaganism." Land argued that Miers was the person in charge of vetting all the nominees with whom the President did not back down, so he did not back down with the Miers nomination.

"I'm not sure the President wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned," stated Buchanan, insisting that both the President's wife and his mother support the decision. Land corrected him, reminding PJB that the President "wants to see the decision returned to the people of the United States."

Buchanan remarked that President Bush has "contempt for the conservatives." He argued that Bush "does not understand the gravity of this issue." He said that the President had the opportunity to pick a fight with the liberals and build some political capital, but he blew it. (Fights are best picked when on has already accumulated such capital.)

Russert asked Land if there weren't someone better qualified he might have chosen. Land conceded that there might be, "but I'm not the President of the United States." He argued that the President "deserved better" from conservatives after all the courageous nominations he's made in the past. (The fight is about this particular nomination only.)

Buchanan argued that Miers had not taken a stand on important issues in 40-years. He wants to see her nomination withdrawn, and he would vote NO if he were a sitting Senator. But not necessarily. He said that she had to make her case before the Judiciary Committee, and if she did that, then he might vote YES. Russert did not ask him why he wanted her name to be withdrawn before she could make a case that could change his mind.

PJB wants her name to be withdrawn before her hearings, but he could change his mind based on what she says at the hearings. (That and a nickel will get you a Yasser Arafat Halloween mask.)

Buchanan wants Miers to tell the Judiciary Committee that Roe v. Wade "is an abomination," but he also repeated that he wants her nomination to be withdrawn. He said that he thinks her nomination will be defeated. Land thinks she will be confirmed.

GRAHAM, HECHT, AND BAUER ON FNS. Host Chris Wallace talked to Senator Lindsey Graham (pro), evangelical Gary Bauer (anti), and Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht (pro). (In the MSM articles we've seen over the past week discussing Harriet Miers's love life, Hecht is the "man in her life.")

Graham explained that the President picked a woman for diversity and he picked one whom he "knew and trusted." He called this, "Classic Bush." He personally would have chosen Judge Karen Williams, but the President is the one who nominates. (Williams sits on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and was born in Graham's State of South Carolina.)

Justice Hecht insisted of his friend: "She has a record a mile long." He pointed out that because she has been vetting candidates for the President, she knows what the President seeks in prospective judicial nominees. The President has "thrown her hardballs," he insisted.

When asked if Miers would withdraw her nomination, Hecht insisted that there is "no chance at all. … She's going to see this through." He said that he hasn't talked to her directly about this, but he called it "outside the bounds of possibility."

Bauer said that Miers being an evangelical was very nice, but that it said nothing about her judicial philosophy. He declared that Roe v. Wade was "set in stone," and he insisted that "the worst elements of the Democrat Party" have taken over the nominating process, forcing stealth nominees. He said that the President is afraid of these Democrats. Bauer wanted and wants a fight now: "So what? Let's have that debate!"

Bauer said that he cannot tell if Miers is a conservative, a moderate, or what.

Graham seems to have heard from the WH on this one. He argued that the "keepers of the conservative flame" might be angry now, but they'll come around as Miers is revealed during the nominating process. This would indicate that the WH doesn't know how badly some conservatives are itching for an Armageddon, a bloody battle with the Dems to remove the curse which they have seen in judicially androgynous, stealth nominees.

SCHUMER AND BROWNBACK ON FTN. Host Bob Schieffer's guests on CBS's Face the Nation were Senators Sam Brownback, anti-abort from Kansas, and Chuckie Schumer, pro-abort from New York. Brownback said that concern of conservatives over the Miers pick was based on two things. First, conservatives wanted a "well-formed jurist," one who had been a part of the public discussion of issues of concern. The other concern, he said, was that stealth nominees by Republicans have almost always tended to "veer to the left." (Some called this "growing on the court," while others call it the "Greenhouse effect," after New York Times court reporter Linda Greenhouse.)

Schieffer said that some conservative sources have said that Brownback has told people in private that the Judiciary Committee would "cut her up." Brownback said that he had never said that. He decried stealth nominations, but when asked if the Miers nomination should be withdrawn, answered: "I'm not about to suggest that." He reiterated that he is frustrated by the process which forces stealth nominees.

Jan Crawford Greenburg, the court reporter from the Chicago Tribune, asked Brownback if he were afraid that the Senate GOP could not overcome a filibuster of an anti-abort nominee, and Brownback said that they could have broken such a filibuster. (The pro-life votes aren't there, Sam.)

Schumer then alleged that it was Karl Rove who called James Dobson of Focus on the Family and "whispered" that Miers would rule in a direction to Dobson's liking on Dobson's issues. Schumer said that the Judiciary Committee should call Dobson as a witness to testify as to what Rove "whispered" to him. Asked if he would subpoena Dobson, Schumer said that he hoped that he would have to do so, but that they would "cross that bridge when we come to it," consulting, no doubt, with Teddy Kennedy.

Schieffer cited Pat Buchanan on Meet the Press earlier, stating that he didn't think the President wanted to overturn Roe. He asked Schumer if the thought the President were secretly trying to put a pro-Roe justice on the court. Schumer insisted that the President was "in a box," trying to appoint someone who could pass but also someone who would tick off "extreme right fringe of his party."

Brownback interrupted that the Democrats had put the President in the box with the pro-abortion litmus test. Schumer sighed and replied: "Sam, we do not have a litmus test"; rather, they merely want to know the "judicial philosophy of a nominee." Which is a litmus test, Chuck.

SHAWKAT AZIZ ON LE. Late Edition host Wolf Blitzer on CNN spoke by phone with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz about the earthquake. After the reality of New Orleans met the MSM hysteria, we learned to be skeptical of these reports, but it looks intensely devastating. Inaccessible terrain. What they need most? Tents, blankets, and medicine. And money to rebuild the infrastructure. He has no problem, he said, with the U.S. military bringing helicopters. They want the helicopters, he said, not the troops. He was promised and expects six to eight U.S. military helicopters without the troops by tomorrow morning, Pakistani time. He said that Pakistan has plenty of doctors, which is no surprise. He thinks they'll need "hundreds of millions of dollars" to rebuild. But no troops.

DR. NABARRO ON LE. Blitzer next talked to the United Nation's bird flu envoy Dr. David Nabarro, live from Lake Geneva, Switzerland. He is "indeed worried about he spread of the bird flu." He called it "nasty," but said that they haven't seen human-to-human transmission of bird flu.

Blitzer did not ask him why the U.N. has a bird flu envoy.

Nabarro said that there will be a human bird flu pandemic because human society has a bird flu pandemic every thirty to forty years. He agreed with HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt that the world is not prepared for the bird flu pandemic, which would "break down trade, transportation, and our normal way of living." In a CNN clip played by Blitzer, staunchly pro-abort Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the Asian nations were not cooperating with the world on bird flu. Dr. Nabarro said that Fauci was filled with bird droppings on the Asian nations vis-à-vis the bird flu.

Dr. Nabarro does not know how many people will die of the bird flu pandemic. The World Health Organization guessed between 4 and 7 million will die of the bird flu, but some use a bigger figure.

PAT ROBERTSON ON LE. Blitzer next spoke to the Reverend Dr. Pat Robertson about the Republican rift around the nomination of Harriet Miers. Blitzer tried to goad Robertson into asserting that the earthquake was a sign of Christ's return. Robertson said that this is possible, but he had no special revelation to inform him that it was.

Rev. Robertson said that his organization, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), argues before the Supreme Court and a lot of Miers's critics do not. He said that Miers is very good and deeply conservative, he takes the President's word on that.

He suggested, "I think that what the President wants is a vote which represents his point of view," adding that some scholars go off on side trips. He said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist…. The Constitution was written for regular people."

Blitzer played Dobson saying that the blood of the unborn would be on his hands if he were wrong. Robertson said that he respected "Jim," but that what he said was over the top. Neither he nor Jim pick the justices or confirm them. And Robertson said that he took some flak a few years ago when he said overturning Roe, "as it should be," would simply return the battle to the States.

Blitzer was done with that topic and moved to Hugo Chavez and Robertson's "death threat." Robertson said that August "is a slow news month. They were looking for a big story, and I was it." (Camp Cindy was the August story, though.) He said that he has apologized to Chavez for his remarks but added that Chavez is a Marxist who wants to set up a Marxist dictatorship and has attempted to purchase nuclear technology from Iran.

Robertson added that his sources have told him that shortly after September 11, Chavez sent to Osama bin Laden $1.2-million in cash.

SPECTER AND LEAHY ON TW. George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's This Week, spoke with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and his ranking Dem, Pat Leahy.

Specter told that he thinks that it's possible that Miers could turn out to be the most qualified justice in the whole wide world. Steph repeated Specter's quote that Miers needs a "crash course in Constitutional law" and asked how he could vote for someone who needed such a course Specter answered that not having a current working knowledge of various arcane facts of constitutional law does not mean she could not be a great justice.

"I think she may well turn out to be the best qualified once we give her a chance to be heard. But when you deal in constitutional law, you're dealing in some very esoteric, complicated subjects that require a great deal of background.'' He promised to ask press the nominee hard on these matters, without mentioned the esoteric, arcane, complicated constitutional concept of super duper precedent.

He said that Harriet Miers had faced an instant Washington "lynch mob."

Leahy said that the President says that Miers is the most qualified and she says that the Miers says that the President is the most brilliant man she's ever met. He questioned both statements. Leahy said that conservative commentators all came out in favor of Roberts when he was announced (they did not) and they are now coming out against Miers.

It is not important, Specter said, to ask Miers if she would uphold Roe v. Wade. He rejected a litmus test, boasting that he voted for Scalia and for Rehnquist. One issue is too thin for him. Leahy said that Miers assured him that she had not told anyone, nor had authorized anyone to speak for her, about her position on Roe. If she had assured anyone of how she'd rule on a specific case, Leahy said, he'd vote against her and would expect every other Senator to do the same.

Specter believes that the Senate Judiciary Committee is entitled to know whatever the White House knew about Miers, any pre-condition as to how a nominee would vote. He said that he has divided the witnesses to be called equally between the Dems and the Republicans, and that Leahy might want to ask Dobson to testify about what Rove told him; if Leahy doesn't, he might. This is important in this case, he added, because she will be a swing vote.

Specter said that he will call witnesses "only if it rises to the level" of witness-calling. Staff will check, because he's not basing his witness list on a five second sound byte from a Sunday show. He does not believe that Miers gave any assurances: "She's always straight-forward…. She is a woman of great integrity."

Steph confronted Leahy with the fabricated Burger-Warren Burger story published by the post, that Miers had become the ultra-ditz and confused Justices Warren Burger and Earl Warren. Leahy said he did ask her for several of her favorite justices, as he does with every nominee, and "she named a couple, one of whom was Warren Burger." Steph asked why she had named Burger, and Leahy responded that he would ask her about this in public.

Specter said that he "wouldn't hold her to any spontaneous answers." He called on "people who write these columns in the newspapers" to give her some room. Let the committee do its job.

Leahy asked: "Could America do better?" Leahy answered ,"Iraq, Katrina, and gasoline prices… and America ought to know who's going to be on the Supreme Court." Specter said that for someone to function as "White House Counsel to the President of the United States," she had to be pretty sharp.

Leahy doesn't know how the hearings could happen by Thanksgiving, but he says Republicans are her main problem in being confirmed. Specter said that the standard was not to get it done quickly, but "to get it done right."

My question now is: Will Sandy get to quit by Christmas?

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Both Specter and Brownback are taking a public wait-and-see approach with Harriet Miers, with Specter suggesting that she possibly might be great – in Specterian terms, that is something else entirely – and that it is not helpful to have the "lynch mob" leaping putting up the rope sight unseen. Brownback is more cautious but he is waiting for the hearings, indicating that he is not pressuring Miers to resign.

Have it at!