Borked

KANSAS CITY – Don't kid yourself, Harriet Miers' decision to withdraw her nomination to the Supreme Court today has nothing to do with White House documents.

Just what it is about, however, may not be as easy to understand when the history books are written as it is today.

Was it because she was something less than a superb intellectual? If so, one has to ask just how we came to know this. SMU is not a degree to be ashamed of. Her credentials as a lawyer are top-notch.

Was it because she was never a judge? Felix Frankfurter and William Rehnquist were never judges.

Was it because she was too liberal to be confirmed? If this was the case, one would expect at least 35 Democrats to vote for her and probably more than 15 Republicans to cast affirmative tallies as well, if for no reason other than a reluctance to vote against George Bush.

No, it was because the Christian Right made Mr. Bush. They elevated him from Major League Baseball obscurity to the Oval Office. And what the Christian Right giveth, the Christian Right can taketh away. Ms. Miers was too liberal; not a certain conservative, possibly a gay rights advocate and the owner of a smaller conservative paper trail than Jim Jeffords. Add to this the veritable group of left-wing nutcases who simply couldn't either say nice things or shut up (Messrs Schumer and Kennedy come to mind, as do Mesdames Feinstein and Boxer) and the world crumbled on Ms. Miers.

Indeed, the history books will trouble to discover her great flaw. We never even really got to know her. But now she is gone – the first woman to ever get Borked.

So Mr. Bush now gets to make a new pick and, with Scooter Libby's indictment all but a certainty at this point in time, speculation is that the president would do well to tap a nominee sooner rather than later as a means of adjusting the news cycle to his liking. With that in mind, I present a trifecta of suggestions – people who, simply, can't get Borked:

Floyd Abrams – His client looks worse and worse by the day, but with the joint backing of the Bush Administration and The New York Times editorial board (and, hey, let's not kid ourselves – the paper's news section, too), who is going to mess with him?

Patrick Fitzgerald – Seriously, who wants to mess with this guy right now? And, by the way, if it takes his replacements two more years, Mr. Bush might actually be able to run out the clock on these pesky indictments.

Joseph Wilson – Okay, maybe he would get Borked. But hey, with this knack for fictitious writing, the other eight justices would have to stay on their toes when decisions are handed down.