JAMES AND KARL….James Dobson revealed today that Harriet Miers made it to the top of the Supreme Court short list because several of the better qualified candidates weren’t interested:
What Karl told me is that some of those individuals took themselves off that list and they would not allow their names to be considered, because the process has become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter, that they didn’t want to subject themselves or the members of their families to it.
Shouldn’t Dobson be upset that Karl Rove doesn’t think highly enough of him to even make up a decent lie? Considering the virtual love fest that attended John Roberts’s elevation to Chief Justice, does he seriously expect us to believe that there are highly qualified candidates, for whom a job on the Supreme Court is probably their life’s ambition, who don’t want to be nominated because they’re afraid they’ll have to withstand a few weeks of mildly nasty attacks? Please.
In any case, the next time he’s chatting with Karl, he should ask him who these candidates were. I’m sure we’d all like to know.
UPDATE: In other news, The Hotline says the whole Miers thing was dreamed up by White House chief of staff Andy Card:
This makes Card look bad and White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove look, well, less bad. What that says about who is leaking this stuff… whether Rove and Card are at loggerheads… whether the White House bungled the nomination outreach… is TBD.
Let’s see now. Rove is one of the folks about to be indicted and Card is one of the folks who isn’t. Right? So I guess that all fits.
