Harriet Miers

I know nothing whatsoever, other than the widely reported stuff, about her. I have no idea whether she's a great choice, an awful choice, or somewhere in between. I will say this - W's dad got blamed (rightly so) for Souter, but there was always some of that blame apportioned to John Sununu, who assured him that Souter was really a conservative. If Harriet Miers turns out to be another Souter, George W. Bush will have nobody to blame but himself. No one.

There's a lot of insta-criticism on the right, but I'm skeptical that anyone's actually in a position to be making it on substantive grounds. The assumption seems to be that if we don't KNOW that she's a conservative, we KNOW that she's not, and I don't think that's fair. There isn't anyone, as far as I can tell, who's in a better position to evaluate her potential than George W. Bush. So, as I say, if this turns out badly, he screwed up, he and he alone, and he'll get no sympathy or pass from me...

(Yeah, right - as if he needs or wants one...)