Seeking to quell unrest on his conservative flank, President Bush mounted a defense Tuesday of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, insisting that his friend and former personal lawyer was “the best person I could find” for the job.
“I can understand people not knowing Harriet. She hasn’t been one of these publicity hounds,” Bush said during a Rose Garden news conference, his first in more than four months. “She’s been somebody who just quietly does her job. But when she does it, she performs, you see.”
Asked whether she was the most qualified person in the country to serve on the court, Bush was blunt: “Yes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have” nominated her.
Bush’s choice of Miers has — at least at first — raised more hackles within his own party’s ranks than it has with Democrats, a rare occurrence during his years in the White House.
Still, with most Republican senators expressing confidence in Miers — and Democrats expressing relief that Bush did not choose someone more flamboyantly conservative — her confirmation appears on track, barring unforeseen developments.
