Something has always seemed fishy about the whole nomination... I think Bush served her up as a sacrificial lamb, knowing she wouldn't get confirmed. Once the nomination falls through, Bush is free to nominate who he wants, white, male, conservative. He can then say that he tried to nominate someone based on diversity, but he was shot down. I think this is all calculated, with the hand of Rove involved. Plus I think this is probably to what Dobson was refering, when he said he had inside info on it. I know, it's very conspiracy theory-ish. But it's the impression I've always gotten about this...

Fortunately, the press is no longer in a mood to be played the way the White House is used to. If they take more than about 16 hours from now to dump Miers, the press will be all over the story of the orchestration of the withdrawal. And it will take them much more than one more news cycle to stir up a critical mass of Republicon Senatebots "requesting" documents that might be covered by executive privilege. They will end up looking as incompetent in their efforts to drop this nomination as they have been in their efforts to promote it - for good reason, since the only thing they are clearly good at is demonstrating their own incompetence.

Look for them to flush Miers within hours of Fitzgerald releasing his indictments. At some point, even this White House has got to figure out that one no-good-very-bad day is better than two.

There is a signficant assumption, possibly even a flaw, in the face-saving theory about document conflicts giving Miers a way out. Ultimately, there is a line in the sand that has been drawn, and either the conservative activists or the White House are going to have to back down. No matter how you cut it, the conflict remains, and any "cover" that disagreements over documents could provide is contingent on President Bush actually wanting Miers to withdraw her nomination. Judging by Bush's history of protecting his friends, it would be a significant turnaround for him to give into what he seems to see as the opinions of conservative intellectuals, for whom he has no great affection, instead of pushing forward to get what he wants.

Nothing this White House does should be taken at face value. They are spinning us into oblivion, and assuming the Miers' nomination wasn't just a stalking horse to begin with, then her withdrawal, which I sensed from Day 1, is going to be a masterful example of how to make lemonade when all you've got is lemons.

No matter how it happens, Bush will look like he lost a big one, and that is even more frightening than the prospect of Miers on the court. He's too insecure a man to just swallow a loss and move on gracefully.

Bush will move to his base for the next nomination, the Democrats are still MIA, and the nuclear option is sitting on the back burner. It'll be great theatre, if not farce, as the master spinners twirl the mainline media like a baton in the hands of a cheerleader.

At least Bush's domestic agenda, short term, will be in the toilet. Beware the next chapter.

I wonder if the Meirs nomination was just a stalling tatic. Bush wanted to wag the dog, so he made a nomination that would get every one excited, but couldn't be confirmed, with the plan that she would back down later.

Just a thought.