Inside Bush's Brain

Jim Pinkerton supplies one of the better fly-overs of the Miers nomination, noting the difference between conservative and movement conservative. Bush wanted the former and was indifferent to the latter. Or maybe bored by it.

I picture Dubya, like any other hotshot CEO with an MBA and any kind of success behind them, impatient as hell with the vetting process and somewhat mystified by the conversations about judiciary philosophy. These guys always want to cut to the chase and get to the bullet points. I bet Harriet Miers was the only person involved in the nominating process who made a lick of sense to Bush. His big appointment decision tree clearly only has two levels—do they understand the issues and can I trust them? Great, we're done here.

The details of getting Miers to the court are now just down to execution. Bush decided, now he expects his team to execute on his decision. But I truly think that Bush's CEO-think breaks down when confronted with the Senate Judiciary Committee TV extravaganza. Executive control of the process flies out the window there. In theory, Miers could unleash some faux pas every bit as debilitating as the Howard Dean rrrrrroaaaaaaar that sundered a chilly Iowa night and stopped his campaign cold.

This gets us right back to the trust issue. Bush obviously trusts this will not happen with Miers.