President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, White House counsel Harriet Miers, is generating actual grumbling from the right and genuine ambivalence on the left. The question is why President Bush would nominate someone with no judicial experience or other substantive public advocacy skills. Bush has been the main beneficiary and witness to Ms. Miers' on-the-job skills, from her services to him as governor all the way to the White House. But I think the bigger issue may be what Ms. Miers has witnessed during her devoted service.
Not that I want to immediately accuse Bush or Miers of any wrong-doing. But this is one of the few people involved in almost every potential 'W' legal question in the past 10 years. Ms. Miers was also involved in vetting the legal aspects of Bush's dealings with the current Republican apparatus. A tempting side effect to her confirmation would be to insulate her behind the highest bench in the land. How thorny would it be to probe a Justice Miers in the various investigations that inevitably grind out from the Beltway mill, regardless of their merit?
On the flip, the President would easily have the right to contact and coordinate with her whenever the legal issue overlapped with her work for him. And if this resulted in a regular info-pipeline between a Supreme Court justice and the extended Bush clan for years to come, so much the better. Even without any untoward collusion involved, this is classic Bush network-building. Someone at the Supreme Court that would at least pick up the phone on a regular basis is a big deal and a jewel in the prince's crown.