Miers withdraws nomination under mounting criticism

From the Raleigh News & Observer:

By TERENCE HUNT, AP WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Under withering attack from conservatives, President Bush abandoned his push to put loyalist Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court and promised a quick replacement Thursday. Democrats accused him of bowing to the “radical right wing of the Republican Party.”
The White House said Miers had withdrawn because of senators’ demands to see internal documents related to her role as counsel to the president. But politics played a larger role: Bush’s conservative backers had doubts about her ideological purity, and Democrats had little incentive to help the nominee or the embattled GOP president.

“Let’s move on,” said Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi. “In a month, who will remember the name Harriet Miers?”

The withdrawal stunned Washington on a day when the capital was awaiting potential bad news for the administration on another front - the possible indictments of senior White House aides in the CIA leak case. Earlier in the week, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq hit 2,000.

Bush, who said he reluctantly accepted Miers’ decision to withdraw, must now go through the agonizing nomination process for a third time this fall. He could turn first to the list of candidates passed over in favor of Miers, including Samuel Alito, an appeals court judge supported by many conservatives, administration officials said.

Democrats urged Bush to nominate a moderate. “The president has an opportunity now to unite the country. In appointing the next nominee, he must listen to all Americans, not just the far right,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

To read the full article CLICK HERE

Posted in Uncategorized |