As an example of Harriet Miers’ attention to detail, the Washington Post noted today that Bush’s Supreme Court nominee was literally responsible, as White House staff secretary, for handing every piece of paper that went to the president. At times, apparently, her uncompromising standards drove other White House staffers nuts.
“You had to meet her standards, which are very, very high standards, to get documents in to the president,” said one former administration official who agreed to speak of a former colleague only on the condition of anonymity. “I would be fibbing if I didn’t say at times that was frustrating.”
In 2001, Bush’s first year in office, Miers rejected the text of the White House Christmas card and ordered a new version because, the White House said, she did not think it was written well enough.
Now, my first thought after seeing this was, “Wow, up until recently, a nominee for the Supreme Court was proofreading Christmas cards.” As it turns out, however, this little assignment may become the latest in a series of flaps for Miers.
Ned Ryun, son of Rep. Jim Ryun (R), was the one responsible for that rejected card in 2001. As he tells the story, there was more to this than bad writing.
I worked with Miers at the White House. Though my interaction with her was limited, since I was merely a Presidential Writer and she was the Staff Secretary, I had a unique experience with her. In 2001, I was given the task of writing the President’s Christmas message to the nation….
The director of correspondence and the deputy of correspondence edited and approved the message and it was sent to the Staff Secretary’s office for the final vetting. Miers emailed me and told me that the message might offend people of other faiths, i.e., that the message was too Christian. She wanted me to change it. I refused to change the message (In my poor benighted reasoning, I actually think that Christmas is an overtly Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ and the beginning of the redemption of man.).
The director and deputy of correspondence supported me. I even emailed Ken Mehlman (then the Political Director at the White House, now the Republican National Committee Chairman), to see what he thought about the message. He was not offended by it in the least. Miers insisted that I change the tone of the message. I again refused, and after several weeks, the assignment was taken out of my hands. I was later encouraged to apologize to Miers. I did not apologize.
…Miers purposefully sought to dilute the Christianity of the message, thus revealing to me at least a willingness to compromise unnecessarily without outside pressure. That is my opinion based off that experience and I would be more than happy to be proved wrong.
I’m not suggesting that Miers’ handling of a White House Christmas card offers valuable insight into her judicial philosophy. Still, this is exactly the kind of thing that could annoy a significant number of conservative activists, most of whom are just looking for excuses not to like Miers anyway.
Indeed, here we have a Supreme Court nominee whose commitment to Christianity helped get her the appointment in the first place. She’s generating support from some segments of the religious right, at least in part because she’s a devoted churchgoer.
But given an opportunity, Miers apparently watered down a Christmas message to be more secular. Does James Dobson know? For that matter, does Bill O’Reilly know?