Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to be the next justice on the Supreme Court.

And now the battle truly begins.

Forced by the radical wing of his party to nominate a justice who passes the supposedly nonexistent conservative litmus test, and having to do so at a time when he desperately needs to shore up the support of his own party, Bush will undoubtedly pick someone whose right-wing views are beyond reproach.

And then it will be up to Democrats to fight the nomination.

Suffice it to say that after the Roberts hearings, my confidence in their ability to do that successfully is less than absolute.

But we shall see. Let’s hope that the Gang of 14 lives up to its bipartisan posse status, and prevents the next nominee from being a ranting ideologue on the order of Antonin Scalia.

UPDATE: Harriet weighs in (via Attytood)

UPDATE #2: Great post by Ezra Klein (who quotes another great post by Mark Schmitt) on the changed dynamics in the Senate, and especially about Arlen Specter’s role in approving the next nomination.

Schmitt writes:

Ezra Klein adds that “In addition to a weakened White House, Frist has completely lost control and the Senate has devolved into fractious warfare between a variety of powerbases looking towards campaigns for the presidency. It is, for party discipline purposes, the absolute worst of all worlds.”

Let’s hope that they’re both right.

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UPDATE 12:43 PM PST — This keeps getting more interesting. According to President Bush, the Miers nomination all comes down to the Jesus factor. Did God tell Bush to choose Miers like God told Bush to invade Iraq?

. . .

Some lefty bloggers seem excited, even giddy, that Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court is being attacked by the Right. Some pundits speculate that Bush might give in to the conservative calls for him to withdraw her nomination. My take on all this madness is simple: Never underestimate the power of the dark side. To put it bluntly, the conservative knee jerk reaction to the Miers nomination is nothing but a Rovian mindf*%k.

About half of conservatives appear strongly vocal about Miers lack of qualifications. The other half remain silent and are blessed with the gift of blind faith. Yesterday, the Heretik summarized the latest hubbub about Miers’ nomination. Demented blonde fembots Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham have dared to spit in the face of Dear Leader by denouncing Miers and charging Bush with cronyism. Their fake-out games in the media are working quite well.

So, what about that secret phone call between Karl Rove and James Dobson? Rove went directly to the spokesman of the Christian dominionist movement to reassure them of Miers’ staunch conservative credentials. Here’s Sponge Dob on Miers (from Newsday):

“It’s what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life.”

Bingo! Don’t tell me that George W. Bush would appoint a Souter to the court. There’s no chance in hell. Miers will turn out to be just what the Right desires and will perform a two-fold function for the ruling establishment. First, she will champion the conservative movement by voting to repeal women’s rights, workers’ rights and environmental protection. Second, she will defend the executive power of the “best governor ever” and bail him out of trouble if he ever faces prosecution once he leaves office.

Am I the only one who thinks the Right is trying to fake out the Left with their faux rage against Bush? Then again, I’m just a young, cynical exiled blogger who doesn’t know much. Time will tell.

Agi T. Prop

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What song lyrics best suit this pair of cosy love-birds?

Here’s my vote:

I got chills, they’re multiplyin’, and I’m losin’ control
Cause the power you’re supplyin’, it’s electrifyin’

You better shape up, cause I need a man, and my heart is set on you
You better shape up, you better understand, to my heart I must be true
Nothing left, nothing left for me to do

You’re the one that I want (you are the one I want), ooh ooh ooh, honey
The one that I want (you are the one I want), ooh ooh ooh, honey

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My friend Rod emailed to point out that I may have been overly hasty in suggesting that Bush nominated Iggy Pop for the Supreme Court.

Upon further review, Bush clearly nominated Ozzy.

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In a move that shocked the nation, George W. Bush has nominated Iggy Pop for Supreme Court justice.

Attytood has more on this nominee’s attempts to search and destroy.

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