[Mb-civic] A clumsy effort to spin Miers - Thomas Oliphant - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

A clumsy effort to spin Miers

By Thomas Oliphant, Globe Columnist  |  October 13, 2005

WASHINGTON

IT MIGHT HELP if Karl Rove's fourth appearance this week before the 
federal grand jury investigating the use of classified intelligence 
information in an ugly campaign to smear former Ambassador Joseph Wilson 
included a few questions about the Supreme Court.

What might emerge would be the truth about how far over the line Rove 
went in trying to drum up Christian conservative support for Harriet 
Miers just before President Bush announced her nomination. Failing that, 
all we're left with is White House spin and two versions of the story 
from one of the movement's most powerful figures -- James Dobson of 
Focus on Family.

The purpose of the spin and Dobson's latest version is limited for the 
moment -- to clear enough of the air to keep Senate Judiciary Committee 
chairman Arlen Specter from calling Dobson and Rove as witnesses once 
the Miers confirmation process reaches the public hearing stage.

Even if it succeeds, however, the White House has managed to make the 
political journey facing Miers more difficult by doing the opposite of 
what it did when it was John Roberts trying to survive the process. The 
White House insisted that Roberts's religion should have nothing to do 
with his confirmation. But the White House spin now is that Miers's 
religion should have everything to do with her confirmation. Such is the 
nature of spin.

My guess is that the limited purpose will succeed. It is difficult to 
imagine, given the Bush obsession with White House secrecy and his 
current and perilous legal situation, that Rove would be permitted 
anywhere near Capitol Hill, and aides are already arguing that Dobson's 
latest version of his chat with Rove is enough to dissuade Specter from 
polluting the hearings with his presence.

We'll see. As it is, the latest flip-within-a-flap has only served to 
harden the conservative chagrin at this nomination and to give 
progressives another reason to suspect her as a Bush toady lacking in 
independent judgment and judicial temperament. The intensity of the 
conservative chagrin may be be aimed at blowing up this nomination 
before hearings are ever held and Miers has an opportunity to appear 
minimally acceptable.

The original White House sales job was that the Miers choice was a 
welcome selection of a distinguished Texas lawyer whose gender only 
enhanced her status. That sales job was ineffective in avoiding a sudden 
explosion of conservative displeasure that Bush chose someone with no 
roots in and no ties to a movement to fashion a new judicial philosophy 
that stretches back at least to Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

Within a day, the White House reacted by changing the pitch and focusing 
on abortion and religion. A close friend of Miers who is on the Texas 
Supreme Court, Nathan Hecht, was supplied to reporters and activists via 
conference calls to testify to her 25 years of evangelical faith, her 
membership in what Hecht called a very conservative and antiabortion 
Dallas church, and her belief that abortion is wrong. Hecht, however, 
had the elemental good sense to stress that all this had nothing to do 
with how she would decide individual cases.

Dobson turned out to lack that good sense. By last weekend, he was 
putting out his first version of his chat with Rove. He hinted slyly 
that he knew stuff he probably shouldn't but that he had no doubt of her 
antiabortion credentials and that social conservatives should relax 
after his Rove reassurances.

This gambit not only upset Specter and ranking committee Democrat 
Patrick Leahy, it also failed to mollify a single conservative. The 
result was Dobson's second version, now being spread via his group's 
radio program.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/13/a_clumsy_effort_to_spin_miers/
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