Thursday, October 13, 2005
On Iraq and Miers and Staying the Course
Given the president's refusal to depart from his original plan for Iraq in the face of so many voices demanding so many different things from him, it is more amusing than anything else to read in John Fund's piece this morning that:
Several large GOP donors in Texas have met to discuss spending large sums to run ads calling on Ms. Miers to withdraw.I asked Justice Hecht about this yesterday:
HH: Any doubt in your mind that she will persevere through to those hearings, and then on to confirmation?
NH: None.
HH: I want to repeat that, because of course, a lot of people, including some friends of mine, have said she would do the president a favor by withdrawing. I disagree with that calculation, but I just want to get your practical sense. Any possibility of that happening?
NH: Absolutely not. And the president has given no indication that he wants her to. He seems even more determined than ever.
I think there is near zero chance of Harriet Miers withdrawing her nomination or of the president asking her to do so. I think there is near zero chance of her being defeated in the Committee or on the floor.
Alas, Hugh leaves out one crucial point. Attacking the president's Supreme Court nominee in a time of war only emboldens the terrorists.
All joking aside, there is something of an interesting point here. "He seems even more determined than ever." I believe it. It's not in Bush's fiber to admit error, to second-guess, to cut losses and run in the face of overwhelming opposition (see Bolton, John). It's part of his self-deluding mythology. He's the gut-instinct president. He's the leader who will not waver. And it doesn't matter who is doing the criticizing-- Democrat, Republican, Zooastrian. The more everyone says he is wrong, the more he believes he is right. It's something of a pathology, though, not, as Hewitt implies, the manly-man trait of a Great Leader.
