Dan Coats: Washington’s Choice to Aid Miers Confirmation

By David Brody
Washington Correspondent

CBN.com – WASHINGTON - Harriet Miers has been surprised by the way conservatives have reacted to her Supreme Court nomination, according to former congressional representative Dan Coats.

The White House has put Coats in charge of getting Miers confirmed by the Senate.

Since the day she was nominated for the Supreme Court, Miers has morphed from trusted White House advisor to controversial candidate. The Democrats have been holding their fire.

It has been conservatives who are upset. Not necessarily at Miers, but more at the President for going with someone with no proven judicial record -- an unknown. CBN News spoke with Dan Coats, a former congressman who has been picked by the President with instructions to get Miers confirmed.

CBN NEWS: What has been her reaction to some of this conservative backlash that we've been hearing about?

DAN COATS: Well, I think she's a little bit surprised, as many of us were. The President has been so definitive and out front, in terms of saying he does not want to appoint someone to the court who legislates - that's Congress's job. He wants someone that is going to be faithful to the Constitution and the laws of the land.

The President has asked his conservative base to overlook her lack of judicial record, and that they should trust him that he knows Miers' heart.

Coats commented, “She's not going to be someone who you hear ‘trust me’ today, and ‘Oops, we made a mistake, how could that have happened?"

But that is a huge fear. Some senators and many in the conservative movement wonder if she may drift left and become the next David Souter, a Supreme Court justice picked by the President's father who supposedly was conservative. He has turned out to be liberal. The uncertainty of it all has led some conservative commentators to say the President should withdraw this nomination.

CBN NEWS: Within the White House, what's the sense there, when you hear these calls, some of them from conservative activists, to withdraw this nomination?

COATS: Well, the sense is, don't jump to conclusions. Some of the rhetoric has just been so overboard in my opinion, and the conclusions have been so pre-judgmental.

Conservative activist Manny Miranda says that the President got some bad advice on this one. "Unfortunately, I think he was ill-advised,” stated Miranda. “Perhaps he surrounded himself with advisors who didn't quite calculate this the way it turned out."

CBN NEWS: Some conservative activists have said that President was ill-advised by his advisors. What's the reaction to that?

COATS: Well, I don't think so. Harriet Miers was very intimately involved in helping select many of these appellate court judges who were very supportive of and supported by the conservative right…Too many people arrive too quickly at conclusions and judgments without really understanding and knowing the facts. That's why it's important that Harriet Miers go before the committee in the process. It will be televised. People will get to know who she is, and she can meet senators before that and let them know who she is. And when the American people find out, as I have, who she is, I think they are going to be very happy with the choice.

The White House is banking on Miers to ace her confirmation hearing. If she does not, expect those calls for a withdrawal of her nomination to increase each day.

Translate Page