First Read: Clues to Miers withdrawal... [View All]

[jaysunb]

First Read: The day in politics by NBC News for NBC News
---------------------------------------------------------

Breaking news at this writing: Harriet Miers has withdrawn her
nomination to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Apart from the ongoing bad karma that had plagued the Miers nomination,
the only possible clues or shreds of evidence or reasons for a White
House change of heart that we can see from overnight are:
-- the Senate Judiciary Committee not releasing Miers' revised
questionnaire last night, as planned, apparently because of how late in the
evening they received it;
-- Senate Judiciary chair Arlen Specter's heads-up to Miers yesterday
that he planned to ask her during her confirmation hearings about issues
surrounding detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, the authority to declare
war, and how she would recuse herself on cases if confirmed;
-- a Washington Times report that leading Miers backer Leonard Leo quit
the pro-Miers effort yesterday and returned to his job as executive
vice president of the Federalist Society;
-- two conservative groups, the Ethics and Public Policy Center and
Concerned Women for America, both of which had previously taken a neutral
position on Miers, calling on her to withdraw (also reported in the
Washington Times);
-- new questions in the Washington Post about her former Texas law
firm's business "helping to promote tax shelters that were subsequently
deemed abusive by the Internal Revenue Service;" and,
-- Ann Coulter's suggestion on TODAY that all Bush needs to do is drop
Miers and everything with conservatives will be OK.

For more: Today's edition of First Read is available now at
http://www.FirstRead.MSNBC.com!