The defeat of the Harriet Miers nomination by right-wingers concerned that she might NOT overturn Roe v. Wade is a final confirmation of how very far right the country has lunged and how powerful the Religious Right really is. From the standpoint of the political Right, it was enough that Miers would support the president in espousing torture, and support corporations in dismantling laws that limited their global powers. But from the standpoint of the Religious Right, it was not enough unless she also toes the line on Roe and other issues in which they seek to impose a particularly right-wing interpretation of Christianity on the entire society.

        Meanwhile, liberals kept quiet, because they suspected that  Miers was in fact a closet liberal who would , at least on Roe v. Wade,  follow a  path supporting individual freedoms. Fearful that if they spoke up they would "out her,"  and thus put her in danger, the liberals did nothing to confront the public discourse, which of course then became entirely fixated on whether this Bush-follower was "too liberal."

         Yet there may  well have been something real about her liberal instincts. Please read the correspondence below from an insider who happens to be a member of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco/Berkeley. If her perception is correct,  the loss of Miers was not only a proof of the power of the religious right, but also a substantial loss for a society that may now get a true right-wing ideologue.

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A Note on Miers from a Beyt Tikkun congregant:

I  was busy at High
Holiday services yesterday telling all my friends about Harriett and
telling them to relax a little in their usual Liberal Democratic knee-jerk
opposition (which of course includes ME) to everything that comes from
Bush. Then this morning my huband sees this thing in the NYT about how she is a
born-again evangelical and he's all over my case. If  I didn't know Harriet personally, I too would be
thinking what they are all thinking.

I met her in about 1988 or 89. She helped me with all that low-income
housing trauma I was having then - running into Alphonso Jackson at the
Dallas Housing Authority (now the esteemed (?) head of HUD) and getting my
projects killed right and left by him and by Harry Jones, (the other
Clarence Thomas) Director of Housing at City Hall. She helped me Pro Bono
and then helped when she was on the Council. I found her to be very quiet,
reasoned, careful, and yes, judicious, in her process and judgements. No
emotion here. Just cool, calm reason with a lot of concern and caring for
the poor. I can't say what she thinks about private matters because she is
not one to open up about those. I frankly doubt VERY MUCH that she ever has
talked about them to George. I am VERY SURE she would never say something
like guaranteeing that she would make her decisions in the pattern of
Thomas and Scalia. It is totally against her nature to talk like that. And
even though she is an evangelical, one may have deep religious beliefs, as
both you and I do in our totally different religions, but those beliefs
don't violate their deepest natural intellectual methods. Just as there are
Jews who don't fit our mold, there are evangelicals who don't fit their
mold. My guess is that Harriet, who has lived with her mother all her life,
finds the evangelical community a warm and welcoming group that fills her
pretty lonely social life. (She worked 7 days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
when I knew her. I met her at home at 8 p.m. for meetings sometimes.) A
person as bright, curious, analytical and careful as Harriet will, I
believe, look at each case as something in and of itself, trying as much as
she can to operate without prejudices of any kind to decide what's right
based on the constitution. What else can we ask? We certainly aren't going
to get a nominee from Bush that will protect Roe Vs. Wade outright! Now we
just have to hope that all this flak from the right doesn't cause him to
withdraw her nomination!

And, by the way, I think very much that Laura might have had something to
do with this. It is much to sensitive, and sensible for George W. Who
knows, Maybe one of his daughters or some of her friends have needed Roe
sometime or the other. W. does have three women and no men in his family.

She herself is quite a political strategist - which is why she is where she is and is being nominated, I suspect. After all, she is helping liberal democrats get appointed to govt posts. When I was working to get votes for a very touchy low-income housing project in Dallas, she told me HOW to get the other council members to vote for me, and sent me off with the right words to visit them. Smart, quiet, thoughtful, and just the right amount of deviousness. (Don't pass this around. I suspect Le Moore is right when he says we need to be quiet about how good she really is or risk Bush pulling the nomination. Please write something for your website that says "We know nothing about her and need White House documents and memos to Bush la la la la )
I also hope I'm right! But zebras don't change their spots. I know her personality, even though I have never discussed positions or personal issues with her.
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A response from a prominent Texas liberal friend of this Beyt Tikkun congregant:
:
 You are right on with your personal analysis!  I am concerned, however,
that you have documented and broadcasted same!  Shhhh....HM is our stealth
nominee...I think those of us who are pleased that W has nominated someone
to the left of Roberts, should just cool it for the time being and just
give token opposition to the nomination.

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A Comment from Tikkun:
Anyone who thinks that the Bush Administration's current problems shows that the Right is on its way to lose power should take note of the enduring power of the Religious Right that intimidated liberals into silence and managed to torpedo this nomination. Far worse may be coming down the pike. All the more reason why we urgently need you to help build a Network of Spiritual Progressives to counter the power of the Right--and you can join on line at this website and come to the conference in D.C. May 17-20, 2006.