Bush rejects calls to withdraw Miers
Washington President Bush rejected conservative calls Friday to withdraw his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and prepared to reassure skeptical Republicans and persuade the Senate to confirm her for the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Bush advisers who once anticipated all-out war with Democrats over his attempts to reshape the Supreme Court have had to recalibrate their strategy to battle an insurrection among Republicans who contend he was obligated to nominate a top-level legal figure with an unmistakably conservative pedigree.
At every point the White House has hoped it might have turned the corner, it has run into more flak from the right.
Just Friday, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol called on Bush to withdraw the Miers nomination, while Charles Krauthammer derided her selection as “scandalous” and “a joke” in a column headlined “Withdraw This Nominee.”
Bush made clear Friday that he has no intention of backing down. Asked about calls to withdraw the nomination, he said: “No, she is going to be on the bench, she’ll be confirmed. And when she’s on the bench, people will see a fantastic woman who is honest, open, humble and capable of being a great Supreme Court judge.”
DeLay’s lawyers seek to kill indictment
Washington Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s legal team asked a court Friday to throw out his indictment, arguing that a Texas district attorney “attempted to browbeat and coerce” grand jurors into filing criminal charges.
Prosecutor Ronnie Earle “and his staff engaged in an extraordinarily irregular and desperate attempt to contrive a viable charge and get a substitute indictment of Tom DeLay before the expiration of the statute of limitations,” DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said in a court filing alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
“These claims have no merit,” Earle said in a statement. “Because of the laws protecting grand jury secrecy, no other comments can be made. The investigation is continuing.”