Miers... or the Other Two

In an overall very interesting article about conservative resistance to the Miers nomination, the Christian Science Monitor has an especially interesting paragraph about the White House floating the names of potential nominees to Paul Weyrich, the influential head of a conservative think tank in Washington:

In the run-up to this week's announcement, Mr. Weyrich says he and other conservative leaders were given a list of three potential nominees, including Miers, and asked whether they had anything against them. "Based on their records," he had objections for two on the list. But for Miers, "we didn't know anything about her. Nobody knew where she was coming from, so we couldn't tell them anything," he says.

What is most intriguing about this is not that Weyrich was consulted in advance, but that Miers was the least objectionable choice from a conservative perspective. Which begs two questions: 1) who were the other two names, and 2) how can the conservatives calling for Miers to withdraw be so sure that President Bush won't turn around and name one of the other two?

Of all the president's traits that have exasperated Democrats for the past five years, near the top of the list must be his stubborness or resoluteness (depending on your perspective). While many unhappy conservatives are shouting that the White House has not yet recognized the depth of their displeasure, it might be worth suggesting that they have not yet come to terms with just how unflappable this administration can be in the face of overwhelming pressure to reverse course.