I had no idea the Miers nomination would become such an issue that it would tear the base from the GOP ‘leaders’, but I had forgotten a few things. First, in the second term of Presidents, the wannabes get really restless. They have had to deal with a very powerful person in the form of a re-elected President for many years, and they begin to chaff.

There is also the problem of zealots and extremists, who can seriously help pull a party towards a goal, possibly beginning to get too far out front – or even frustrated with the pace of societal transition.

I again post the definitions so people are clear: these labels are not necessarily a bad thing. For example, I am a Sci-Fi fanatic and proud of it. It is when they come at you when you may not have seen that kind of dedication and fervor to a cause in yourself that you may take them as ‘insults’.

Zealot:

a. One who is zealous, especially excessively so.
b. A fanatically committed person.

Fanatic:

A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.

Extremist:

One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, especially in politics.

Sorry for the repetition folks, but some people need to face the fact they have become obsessed to the point of extreme with Miers. For example, we have in the NYTimes this morning, word that Senate Staffers are up in arms on this issue. Staffers being the kind of people who sometimes play Senator when the Senator is not available – nudge, nudge, know what I mean?

As the White House seeks to rally senators behind the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers, lawyers for the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee are expressing dissatisfaction with the choice and pushing back against her, aides to 6 of the 10 Republican committee members said yesterday.

“Everybody is hoping that something will happen on Miers, either that the president would withdraw her or she would realize she is not up to it and pull out while she has some dignity intact,” a lawyer to a Republican committee member said.

I said in a previous post that critics need to be very careful. A lot of us judge the critic to the target of the criticism to understand which way to go with these things. And some of us obviously do not have the Vulcan mind powers being employed by the anti-Miers crowd know for sure she is not ‘up to it’. Remember, these folks are staffers – not Senators or Presidents or managers of 400 person law firms.

All the Republican staff members insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation from their supervisors and from the Senate leaders.

These are obviously also the kind of people who go behind the back to stab you in the back via the press. Not a good indication these are the kinds of people we should be looking towards for guidance. The NY Times laps this GOP infighting up, so no surprise they run with this story.

Another Republican aide close to the committee said, “I don’t know a staffer who approves of this nomination, anywhere. Most of it is outright hostility throughout the Judiciary Committee staff.”

Staffers, like pundits, don’t get to vote in the Senate. But boy, when these folks try and get a deal out of the WH are they going to be learning a very hard lesson in DC politics.

UPDATE:

I posted this then checked Drudge to find this Washington Times story which covers a possibility recently being heard around – the superstars the anti-Miers crowd so wished for may have declined the opportunity to be mangled by the liberals and press.

Meanwhile yesterday, a leading Christian conservative said the White House told him that some prospective Supreme Court nominees conservatives would have preferred withdrew their names from President Bush’s “short list” before the nomination — raising the possibility that Miss Miers wasn’t Mr. Bush’s first pick.

Folks, if this is true there are going to be some really red faces on the Hill, at NRO and at Redstate. If they went out on a political lynching because their heros decided not to get pummeled – instead pummeling George and Laura plus Harriet – then those of us who were being cautious will be completely vindicated. I had heard or read somewhere the Janice Rogers Brown, my preferred nominee, had declined since she had just been through the brutal confirmation process and had no interest to drag her family through it again. I doubt she is looking kindly on the anti-Miers crowd right now.

And those staffers in the NY Times piece! Boy, are they in for a rough few years.

END UPDATE

So, we have a bunch of restless pundits and career congressional lawyers (no wonder they look down on ‘practicing’ lawyers like Miers) chomping at the bit, anxious to lame duck Bush and try to fill the power void. Classic DC power envy.

On the other side of this shrinking (or is that shrieking?) band of revolutionaries you have us dog faced, realists. We simply want some solid evidence Miers is the disaster everyone says she is beyond their personal biases, personal disappointment their hero-judge was passed up, beyond their fear that their image as an inside prognosticator will be shattered, beyond the elitism. Even for the rare folks who did make the wrong comments, beyond sexism.

We want more than some mystical mind reading from distance and across time to damage Bush and lose ground on all the other issues. We want something tangible to trump the fact Miers brings a needed experience base to the court which needs broader views.

I would say the folks at Powerline are beginning to thaw, if this post is any indication.

I liked this post over at Flopping Aces as well, because it brought in some historic background (feel free to skip over the stuff about my posts – I tracked back to it obviously).

Another post I trackbacked to is this post at Mister Snitch, which goes into the Laura Bush comment in detail and highlights the erroneous conclusions of some very major bloggers. Check out the track backs on this post.

The Anchoress has some other good links to posts from those pushing back on the fanatical anti-Miers crowd (check the definitions folks).

My compatriot in West Virginia, Don Surber, has a powerhouse post full of links to explore.

If I run into more posts, I will try and add them.