{"id":5548,"date":"2005-10-17T10:27:44","date_gmt":"2005-10-17T14:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5548"},"modified":"2005-10-17T10:27:44","modified_gmt":"2005-10-17T14:27:44","slug":"the-rights-problematic-assurances-about-miers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-rights-problematic-assurances-about-miers\/","title":{"rendered":"The right’s problematic assurances about Miers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, as pressure mounted about what kind of secrets Karl Rove told James Dobson about Harriet Miers, Dobson took to the airwaves to explain that Miers’ position on Roe v. Wade was not part of his confidential briefing. Dobson said<\/a> he “would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v. Wade,” but he didn’t ask, Bush doesn’t know, and Rove didn’t tell.<\/p>\n

Was any of this true? According to John Fund<\/a> in today’s Wall Street Journal, Dobson and his religious right cohorts were told a great deal more than they’ve admitted. In fact, a conference call with two Miers surrogates shortly after the nomination was announced sought to give leading conservatives insights that have been kept secret from the public.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, Dr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the Miers nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained, and on which the following account is based. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers’s close friends [Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal district court judge] said that she would vote to overturn Roe. […]<\/p>\n

What followed was a free-wheeling discussion about many topics, including same-sex marriage. Justice Hecht said he’d never discussed that issue with Ms. Miers. Then an unidentified voice asked the two men, “Based on your personal knowledge of her, if she had the opportunity, do you believe she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?” “Absolutely,” said Judge Kinkeade. “I agree with that,” said Justice Hecht. “I concur.”<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Dr. Dobson apologized and said he had to leave: “That’s all I need to know and I will get off and make some calls.” When asked later about these comments in the notes I have, he confirmed some of them and said it was “very possible” he made the others. He said he did not specifically recall the comments of the two judges on Roe…. [S]everal who participated in the call confirm that both stated Ms. Miers would overturn Roe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Miers-related news has been trickling out for a couple of weeks, but this may be the most important development yet.
\n
\nIn context, this conference call was the drive to assure the GOP base with promises about how Miers would vote on hot-button issues. The White House will no doubt argue that it wasn’t responsible for organizing the call, but these conservatives did have a chance to chat privately with two leading Miers surrogates — which raises questions about whether the Bush gang was involved in orchestrating the discussion.<\/p>\n

This also renews fears about Miers being the stealth conservative nominee the left has always feared. Publicly, her supporters insist that she’d remain open minded about issues such as abortion; privately, those same supporters insist categorically that she’s made up her mind and she’d vote to overturn Roe.<\/p>\n

And for anyone worried about back-room deals and secret assurances, this conference call should be deal-breaker for Miers nomination. Indeed, the call may become the highlight of the confirmation hearings.<\/p>\n

Some participants in the conference call fear that they will be called to testify at the Miers hearings. “If the call is as you describe it, an effort will be made to subpoena everyone on it,” a Judiciary Committee staffer told me. It is possible that a tape or notes of the call are already in the hands of committee staffers. “Some people were on speaker phones allowing other people to listen in, and others could have been on extensions,” one participant told me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s possible this development might bolster flagging conservative support for Miers’ nomination, but that sound you hear is Dem opposition stiffening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, as pressure mounted about what kind of secrets Karl Rove told James Dobson about Harriet Miers, Dobson took to the airwaves to explain that Miers’ position on Roe v. Wade was not part of his confidential briefing. Dobson said he “would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v. Wade,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}