Sorry Retreat Into Smallness

Charles Krauthammer wields a might firehose of conservative indignation, and if he points it at you, you're going to get more than just a little wet. Charles is not happy with the Miers nomination, and thinks for Bush it marks a retreat from the great ideals that have previously been the hallmarks of his presidency:

This, say her advocates: We are now at war and therefore the great issue of our time is the Article II powers of the president to wage war. For four years, Miers has been immersed in war-and peace decisions and therefore will have a deep familiarity with the tough constitutional issues regarding detention, prisoner treatment and war powers.

Perhaps. We have no idea what her role in these decisions was. But to the extent that there was any role, it becomes a liability. For years -- crucial years in the war on terror -- she will have to recuse herself from judging the constitutionality of these decisions because she will have been a party to having made them in the first place. The Supreme Court will be left with an absent chair on precisely the laws-of-war issues on which she is supposed to bring so much.

By choosing a nominee suggested by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and well known only to George Bush, the president has ducked a fight on the most important domestic question dividing liberals from conservatives: the principles by which one should read and interpret the Constitution. For a man whose presidency is marked by a courageous willingness to think and do big things, this nomination is a sorry retreat into smallness.

You can read the rest of it here.

Bill Kristol, another prominent conservative, was on the Today Show this morning repeating his criticisms of Miers (by the way, do you ever see conservative commentators on Today unless they are criticizing the President?). The conservative criticism is going to get wide play in the media, and that will put additional pressure on those Republicans who want to run in '08 and need to capture the base to win primaries. That can't be good for Miers.