Centerfield

Some Miers post-mortem from the "Religious Right"

I thought this article in Christianity Today might provide a slightly more nuanced view of the Miers withdrawal and the "Religious Right" than Harry Reid's declaration that

The radical right wing of the Republican Party killed the Harriet Miers nomination. Apparently, Ms. Miers did not satisfy those who want to pack the Supreme Court with rigid ideologues

Some key points from the article.

"It was a lot better to withdraw the nomination than to go through a bruising battle and lose," said Richard Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). "At least we didn't have to go on squabbling as a Christian family over this. There was a lot more behind-the-scenes squabbling among Christians than was reported.
"Harriet Miers displayed an incredible degree of character and integrity throughout the process, by everyone's admission. She showed more of the right stuff than the President did in selecting her."

and

"Judicial philosophy is relevant in the nomination process, but religious affiliation or creed is not, and it shouldn't be used to exclude or include any nominee," said Anthony Picarello, president and chief counsel of the Becket Fund. "Recent experience shows that this is a risk for politicians on both sides of the aisle."
"We evangelical Christians didn't inject religion into this. The President did," Cizik said. "[The White House] wanted support for her and went to some high-profile evangelical leaders and got it. But as others have pointed out, the 'faith-based conservatives' who trusted in the infallibility of President Bush's judgment on this one didn't win out. It was the reality-based conservatives who did."

As I've commented many times before the "Religious Right" is not nearly as monolithic as portrayed. Personally, I believe this whole process has rattled (as opposed to energized) religious conservatives. Clearly Ms. Miers was "personally" an evangelical however, how that would impact future court positions was uncertain. I think the "faith-based conservatives" are worried they were "played" and at the same time they're confused as to how to "play". Multiple surveys have indicated that the majority of Americans AND sizeable proportion of evangelicals (if not the majority) feel the "religious right" (whoever that is) has too much power.

OK Tully, maybe I'll have a little bit of that popcorn.