Will the
Judiciary Committee Democrats insist on putting under oath two
Texas judges who are alleged to have guaranteed during a conference
call of Christian conservatives that Miers would vote to overturn
Roe v. Wade? Will the Democrats dig into Miers's alleged
interference nine years ago as Texas Lottery Commission chairman
intended to save then Gov. Bush from political embarrassment?
Officials
charged with winning Miers's confirmation told me neither of these
issues is troublesome, but in fact they suggest incompetence and
neglect by the White House. To permit a conference call with scores
of participants hearing close associates of the nominee predict
her vote on abortion is incompetent. To nominate somebody implicated
in a state lottery dispute in the past without carefully considering
the consequences goes beyond incompetence to arrogant neglect.
President
Bush was not originally prepared for the negative reaction from
the Republican base when he nominated White House Counsel Miers,
his longtime personal attorney. Former Republican National Chairman
Ed Gillespie, leading the confirmation campaign, over two weeks
convinced skeptics that Miers is conservative enough. Whatever
her qualifications, dubious Republican senators after hearing
from Gillespie decided they could not deny his chosen court nominee
to a president on the ropes. Bush has solidified Republican support
not because he is strong but because he looks weak.
Miers remains
so shaky, however, that she may not be able to survive confirmation
hearings that go beyond sparring over how much of her judicial
philosophy she will reveal. That is why John Fund's column
in Monday's Wall Street Journal chilled the president's
backers. He reported a conference call with religious conservatives
Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, that indicated
a lack of White House control over the process.
Fund wrote
that Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht and U.S. District
Judge Ed Kinkeade, on the conference call, flatly predicted that
their friend Miers would rule against Roe v. Wade. Although
the two jurists deny that, I checked with two sources on the conference
call who confirmed Fund's version. That raises the possibility
of bringing two judges under oath before the Senate committee
to grill them on what they said and what Miers told them.
The possibility
of the Lottery Commission controversy being the subject of confirmation
hearings is even more daunting for the White House. The story
now is only being printed in alternative publications, such as
the Dallas Observer of Oct. 13. These reports recalled
the lawsuit brought by Lawrence Littwin alleging that Chairman
Miers fired him as the Lottery Commission's executive director
because he had uncovered corruption involving Gtech, the lottery
management firm.
Littwin's
federal suit claimed Miers protected Gtech because its lobbyist,
former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, as Texas House Speaker had pushed
Bush ahead of other applicants for the Texas Air National Guard
during the Vietnam War. Democrat Barnes had been silent until
a 1999 deposition by him said he had pushed young Bush to the
head of the line. Barnes, who received from Gtech $3 million a
year and $23 million in separation pay, told me that the Bush
Air National Guard story has "absolutely nothing" to
do with his settlement. Littwin is silent under terms of a $300,000
settlement ending his suit. Former Texas Chief Justice John Hill,
a member of the Lottery Commission at the time, told me: "There
is no substance at all to these charges." Miers handled the
case "with care and judiciousness," Hill added.
Whether
Barnes and Littwin will be subpoenaed to rehash these charges
is in the hands of Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter. The White
House saved him from defeat in the 2004 Pennsylvania Republican
primary and did not try to keep him from becoming chairman this
year. But nobody expects Specter to grant forbearance for the
president's lawyer.
