A former official in Bush’s West Wing believes conservative activists are making a mistake opposing Harriet Miers’ Supreme Court nomination. “They’re crazy to take [Bush] on this frontally,” the official said. “Not many people have done that with George Bush and lived to tell about it.”
Aside from the fact that, once again, the Bush gang sounds more like an organized crime family than an executive branch of government, these not-so-subtle threats haven’t made much of an impact with former Bush speechwriter David Frum and his allies.
Influential conservatives who oppose the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court are raising money to escalate their campaign to persuade her to withdraw from consideration. […]
David Frum, the former White House speechwriter who helped coin the phrase “axis of evil,” is coordinating the anti-Miers fundraising effort.
The first phase of the campaign is estimated to cost between $50,000 and $100,000. Frum declined to comment on how or when the money might be spent, whether on newspaper, radio or Internet advertisements. He said underwriters had expressed an interest in putting up the money and he had planned to go back to them when he and other strategists decided the best way to spend it.
He is teaming up with other conservatives behind the scenes to generate opposition to Miers’s nomination, which his former colleagues at the White House are straining to sell to the conservative base.
At the same time, the right-wing Progress for America, which enjoys close Bush ties, is launching a competing campaign, with ads targeted specifically at conservative activists. The group has already bought $10,000 worth of ads on conservative websites, including the Washington Times, Weekly Standard, National Review, and about 20 to 30 conservative blogs.
This exercise, pitting far-right conservatives against far-right conservatives, could get ugly.
Pass the popcorn.