Bush Appointment of Miers Sign of Political Weakness

A quick reaction to Miers - Bush's general counsel and Supreme Court pick.

An inscrutible, neither-fish-nor-fowl crony, without experience as a judge, is a sign that Bush is politically weak. All the signs said suck up to the far right base - but in a moment of snowballing debacles he characteristically puts his personal relationships above his cynically-adopted ideology; great, that's why he picked Roberts, but why someone with so little history and experience? Simply, he knows and trusts her, a comfort to an essentially selfish man in a crisis.

That suggests uncertainty, even shaken confidence, an unwillingness to back a fight; he may get one anyway, except over cronyism and competence rather than ideology- coming fallout from Delay and Abramoff and the Plame Affair may test this choice sorely, and divide him from the traditional conservatives further without winning friends elsewhere.