The Right is ready to jump off a cliff. I'll add to this list as the day wears on, but for now, this should give you the flavor.
Me, the sources, everyone it seems was wrong. We've all heard the rumors, but not a one could believe the President would do that. Where is our Scalia/Thomas.
I think I'll let the President fight this battle himself, for now.
It appears, for what it is worth, that George W. Bush was the ultimate stealth nominee. He has acted like a true-blue conservative, talking the talk and walking the tax cut walk. But, he has expanded government, spent the future, and now nominated she who has the potential to be a female Souter.
But, in truth, we already know what's going on here, and that the president, despite a magnificent farm team from which to choose a solid nominee, chose otherwise.
[...]
If people are disappointed, they have every reason to be.
But near everyone I've talked to this morning feels demoralized (albeit some to differing degrees) with the Miers pick. It could be that there was just too much Priscilla Owen/Janice Rogers Brown talk in the last few weeks. But if Miers doesn't turn out to be a stealth Scalia type — maybe she will yet — people like Rick Santorum are going to be the most demoralized in the coming months.
After the Roberts pick conservatives swooned and said Bush doesn't care about “diversity”; it's only high qualifications that matter to this bold, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may leader, etc., etc. Don't we have to take all that back now?
Harriet Miers? Are you freakin' kidding me?!
[...]
Oh, and if any of you RNC staffers are reading, you can take my name off the mailing list. I am not giving the national Republican Party another dime.
In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. She served Bush well, but she is not the person to lead the court in new directions - or to stand up under the criticism that a conservative justice must expect.
I'M DISAPPOINTED, depressed and demoralized.
A Disappointment.
Think of her as a very capable indentured servant of the Bush family. She'll do what they want. She'll be a very, very tough nut to crack in the hearings. And I have no idea about her judicial philosophy. But I imagine that's the point. When I described her as a flunky last July, a source close to Bush told me: "Don't mess with Harriet." I think they've found someone whose personal loyalty to Bush exceeds even Gonzales'. And in some ways, I see this very personal, very crony appointment to be a response to being told he couldn't pick his main man, Alberto. Harriet is his main woman.
And now, for something completely different, Harry Reid:
I like Harriet Miers.
As Matt joked, "Isn't 'Miers' a weird German misspelling for Souter?"
The right certainly think so.
