MIERS REACTION….I fear that Mark Levin’s reaction to the Harriet Miers withdrawal might be unnervingly on the money:
It’s time for our liberals friends to worry. If the president picks a solid nominee, the base ? meaning Republican Party loyalists and conservative activists ? will be united, reinvigorated, and ready for battle. At least that’s the indication from my radio audience. And frankly, as an aside, there’s another event that is uniting them, and that’s their growing resentment toward Patrick Fitzgerald. Positive press profiles aside, they increasingly view him as a threat to the presidency, and are not much impressed with all the talk in the media about possible indictments for perjury or false statements over emails or memory lapses.
There’s nothing that movement conservatives like more than redemption, and if Bush chooses a God-fearing, fire-breathing conservative to replace Miers, then not only will all be forgiven, but Bush’s support from the base might well be redoubled. They’ll be primed and ready to go after Patrick Fitzgerald and the hated liberal lynch mob who are gunning for their newly repentant savior.
On the other hand, Mark Schmitt makes a decent case that Arlen Specter might stand in the way of a base-pleasing nominee like either of the M&Ms:
A year ago, Specter was humbled and compliant….But now the politics are very different. What’s the right going to do to him now?….And knowing a little bit about Specter, I’m guessing that he feels highly insulted by the fact of the Miers nomination and that he was expected to push it through. An angry, empowered Specter is not a pretty sight, and my guess will be that if they send up a hard-right movement conservative, especially on choice, Specter will no longer feel any obligation to do anything to move the nomination forward.
Great. So liberals are now dependent on a show of peevishness from Arlen Specter? Sigh.
