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Bush pick miers cited for her religion { October 13 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/13/MNG39F7MNE1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/13/MNG39F7MNE1.DTL
Miers' religion helps define her, president says
- Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Washington -- President Bush, trying to quell a blistering assault from conservatives that has thrown Harriet Miers' nomination for the Supreme Court into doubt, said Wednesday that her religion is a factor in evaluating her.
"People ask me why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush said. "They want to know Harriet Miers' background. ... And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
Bush's remarks stand in stark contrast to the administration's insistence before Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed by the Senate last month that his religion, Catholicism, was irrelevant to the position and off limits to discussion.
In fact, Article 6 of the Constitution unequivocally says "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." But with Miers facing ferocious conservative opposition since the president nominated her to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the White House and its surrogates have jettisoned that approach. Several supporters have repeatedly emphasized Miers' evangelical Christianity and her attendance at the Valley View Christian Church, which opposes abortion rights.
People "want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions," Bush said at the White House on Wednesday during a press briefing with Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski. "So our outreach program has been just to explain the facts to people."
But every effort to quash the conservative rebellion over the 60-year-old former Dallas corporate lawyer -- the president's remarks being the latest -- only seems to make matters worse.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan sought to clarify Bush's remarks by denying that Miers' religion had a role in her selection. Miers' religious belief is part of who she is, McClellan said, but "the president makes decisions based on a person's qualifications and experience and judicial temperament."
Bush's comments came after James Dobson, head of the evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family and one of the few religious conservatives publicly backing Miers, talked about his discussions with White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove two days before Bush nominated Miers on Oct. 3 to succeed O'Connor, who has announced her retirement.
Dobson said last week that he supported Miers because he knew "something I probably shouldn't know" after talking with Rove.
On his radio program Wednesday, Dobson said Rove gave him permission to discuss their conversation after suggestions by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont that Dobson might be called to testify on what Specter termed any backroom deals.
Dobson said Rove told him "what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and had fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life."
Rove, he said, "shared with me her judicial philosophy which was consistent with the promises that President Bush had made" to appoint conservative nominees.
"Now, Mr. Rove assured me in that telephone conversation that Harriet Miers fit that description and the president knew her well enough to say so with complete confidence," Dobson said.
Dobson also said Rove told him some of the potential nominees favored by conservatives because of their track record on constitutional issues, had removed their names from consideration because the process has become "so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter."
McClellan acknowledged that some candidates had withdrawn but refused to name them.
Dobson said Rove also made it clear that Bush wanted a woman for the O'Connor seat.
By some counts, roughly half of the Senate's 55 Republicans have publicly expressed doubt about Miers or said they will wait until after her hearings -- still not scheduled -- to decide whether to confirm her nomination.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said the hearings are make or break.
"With Roberts, he already had the votes going into the hearing," Boxer said, referring to Republican support. "(Miers) doesn't. So these hearings become the be-all end-all for her nomination."
Boxer also said she is troubled by the attack on Miers' qualifications, agreeing with comments by first lady Laura Bush and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie that sexism may play a role in conservative opposition to the former head of the Texas Bar Association.
"I don't think they would attack a man this way," Boxer said. "They're demeaning what she has achieved in her life. It's an over-the-top attack that I don't believe you'd see on a man or a married woman."
The sexism charges only further infuriate conservatives.
Conservative are unhappy not because Miers did not attend Harvard, said one leading GOP strategist who requested anonymity. It is because compared with other candidates, including women such as federal appellate court judges Edith Jones and Janice Rogers Brown, Miers is "not in the ballpark. That's the frustration."
The decision to emphasize Miers' religion -- while aimed at the right -- is likely to raise alarms among moderate pro-choice Republicans as well as Democrats.
Bush is trying to try to buy off the right, said Joseph Kobylka, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. "But the more he does that, the more he runs the risk of pushing Miers into the position of looking like a representative of the hard right wing of the Republican Party, which might alienate some people in the middle who have no interest in having ideological justice out of this presidency."
At the same time, television evangelist Pat Robertson warned Republican senators Wednesday not to "turn against a Christian who is a conservative picked by a conservative president. Not on your sweet life, if they want to stay in office."
Ralph Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way, accused the White House of hypocrisy, by contending religion was an inappropriate topic during the Roberts nomination but now "using religion to send a signal to the right that she is going to be OK on a number of issues when she gets on the court."
Despite Dobson's support, conservatives remain widely opposed to the nomination, with some suggesting that Miers voluntarily withdraw.
"I don't know about a single conservative who cares about this and is happy," said the GOP strategist. "It's not that half are unhappy. Everybody is unhappy."
E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at clochhead@sfchronicle.com
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