October 06, 2005

New Wisdom....

What I've learned from today's Hotline:

-- If Miers goes to the Senate floor, she will be confirmed. Withdrawal is the only chance unhappy conservatives have to stop this. Someone ought to call Doug Ginsberg, the last Republican SCOTUS withdrawal we can think of and find out how "withdrawal" takes place.

-- The only WH '08 GOP candidate who can really take advantage of this conservative split is George Allen. As the one mainstream conservative on the fence, he could really become a grassroots conservative hero (and basically bury Sam Brownback and Bill Frist) if he came out in opposition with something along the lines of: "Harriet Miers may turn out to be a great conservative justice, but conservatives aren't interested in hiding their ideology anymore; that's not what the American electorate has said the past three election cycles. So I'll oppose her for simply being too stealth." It would send the signal that he would nominate Borks and Scalias, music to the conservative grassroots' ears. More after the jump. [CHUCK TODD]

-- The number one talking point of the Senate Dems on Judiciary will be along the lines of: "Why should James Dobson get more information about your opinions, Ms. Miers, than the United States Senate. Is his advice and consent more important than the United States Senate?"

-- Anyone else find it strange that only one House Republican is sending out releases attacking the so-called "grand jury shopping" by Ronnie Earle: And it's Tom DeLay. If that's not enough evidence that DeLay is not welcomed back to leadership, I don't know what is.

-- BTW, when is someone going to ask Hillary Clinton (and any other Dem trying to find the middle ground on social issues) their opinion on "intelligent design"?

-- Mitt Romney's decided against running for re-election for MA GOV and focus on WH '08 (but not until the end of the year). Why else would he announce he was postponing of a decision on '06 to focus on state issues. Romney clearly doesn't want to be a lame duck GOV and instead wants to get one more feather in his cap (like health care reform).

-- Of all people, Jon Stewart better summed up the awkward relationship between Kerry and Edwards with this line to Edwards: "Do you see each other now and is it like if you had a gay experience at camp when you were nine?"

-- We've been hearing whispers that despite Charlie Crist's money advantage in the FL GOV GOP primary fight that Tom Gallagher had the better organization. The fact he's got a third party group already up and running radio ads (and we know, he didn't ask for the ads, blah blah blah) underscores the whispers for us. [CHUCK TODD]

Posted at 05:57 PM

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