WASHINGTON – Some of President Bush’s conservative supporters are unconvinced by his defense of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, creating dissension in a Republican Party that until now has reverently approved Bush’s judicial candidates.
Conservatives in some cases are expressing outright opposition, some are in wait-and-see mode and some are silent, all bad signs for a Bush administration used to having the full backing of all wings of the GOP when it takes on the Senate’s minority Democrats over judicial selection.
“I’m getting reports on both sides,” said Paul Weyrich, a conservative leader from the Free Congress Foundation. “Some people are quite enthused about her and other people are very upset. The grass-roots are not happy, I can tell you that.”
Miers, meanwhile, is trying to build up support by visiting senators at the Capitol on Wednesday, scheduling stops with GOP Sen. John Cornyn and top Judiciary Committee Democrat Patrick Leahy.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Wednesday said the nomination was only two days old and suggested that support for Miers would grow once senators looked “at her record of accomplishment.” He said that while she would answer questions put to her by senators, the White House would not make available “confidential deliberative documents” relating to work she had done for the president.
Associated Press
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers meets with Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
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