Ken Mehlman held a conference call Wednesday with right-wing bloggers with two goals in mind:
- to engage the blogosphere more (like the Dems)
- to push the Miers nomination for the SCOTUS
According to some right-wing bloggers who participated, the call was far from impressive. Professor Stephen Bainbridge, a corporate law professor at UCLA (according to his online bio), liveblogged the call and posted his transcript and thoughts online. Even after assurances from Mehlman, Bainbridge is still not convinced that Miers is the person for the job.
See excerpts from his transcript below…
Bainbridge’s thoughts are in parentheses.
11:41 Miers will not be swayed by the “Georgetown cocktail set.” Mehlman acknowledges that conservatives have been burned by past GOP nominations, but emphasizes that Bush knows Miers better than past GOP Presidents knew their nominees. (But what happens if we don’t trust Bush’s judgment anymore?) Miers was involved in getting people like Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owens renominated and confirmed. (A point in her favor)
11:43 Judicial activism is interfering with the GWOT by “micromanaging” decisions. Miers will be solid on executive prerogative. Acknowledges that she’ll have to recuse herself in some early cases. (Did she support use of torture?)
The “Georgetown cocktail set”? Oh how they hate intellectuals.
Good to see that we aren’t the only ones concerned about whether Miers supported Bushco’s torture policies.
“Trust me”.
Good point, Professor.
11:57 The GOP wants to make sure that young lawyers feel comfortable doing things like joining the Federalist Society, but it’s more important to get conservatives on the court. (But if you’re putting forward stealth candidates, doesn’t that defeat the former purpose?)
Good question.
Call ends. My mind is unchanged. It was a lot of assurances but not a lot of facts. And facts are what we need.
Mehlman failed. He’s sticking to the administration line and cannot even come up with one thing that would reassure the base. Obviously, that call was a waste of everyone’s time. Others involved in the call were unimpressed as well.
In other news, Pew Research released some poll numbers on the Miers nomination (see more specific details on their site) and those numbers confirm what we already know:
40% with no opinion. That’s very telling.
Democrats can win this one with such a slim majority of Republicans supporting Miers. And yes, that begs the question of who Bush might pull out of his cronyism hat next if her confirmation fails. Will he pander to his base and cave by nominating someone more to their taste? The administration has said repeatedly that it will not withdraw her nomination. The hearings are scheduled for December. That’s a long time to do damage control with absolutely nothing to back up the reasons for trusting Bush’s choice. In the meantime, the Dems need a coherent strategy. I’m putting together a diary about that and will post it soon.