A Pyrrhic Victory in the Offing?

Where do we go from here? It's time to face the fact that Harriet Miers will not likely make it to the confirmation process in her short, but highly charged time as a Supreme Court nominee. Despite the reasoned calls from a number of people on the right (and even on the left) who are willing to see what happens at the confirmation hearings, the nomination is sunk. The majority of conservative pundits (from most of the National Review Online contributors to John Fund at the Wall Street Journal to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and on and on) are going to force the issue. Period.

There's just no way at this point either President Bush or Harriet Miers can pacify those whose pen and microphone have spoken and continue to speak so forcefully against her. In fact, any further delay from the inevitable will cause even more damage to the President and his ability to govern for the remainder of his term.

Rightly or wrongly, there is nothing whatsoever to be gained by continuing this battle. Whether or not Harriet Miers would prove to be a decent conservative justice is, at this point, totally irrelevant. Like it or not, there is only one way out: either President Bush or Harriet Miers must withdraw her name from consideration.

Given that inevitabiliy, some who have screamed the loudest will cheer in a perceived victory. But, there is no silver lining in this dark cloud. Reread that last sentence. What has happened over the last week and a half will leave its ugly mark on future Supreme Court nominations, most of all the immediate one.

Let's assume for a moment those rumors yesterday -- noted in this blog and elsewhere -- are true: that some of those "a-team" potential Supreme Court nominees did decide not to put themselves or their families through what looked to be a tough nomination battle. Let's further say it was two potential nominees who declined. With that and the fact the Miers nomination will be pulled due to the tantrum on the right, what then? How can any clear-thinking indidvidual believe any of the other "a-team" possibles would agree to be the next nominee?

Because of that, I think it is very likely the next nominee will also not be an "a-lister". And avoiding a Pyrrhic Victory for those who fought so hard to derail Miers is also highly unlikely. One can almost hear the words of King Pyrrhus today, "one more such victory and I am lost". I hope the "winners" will be able to handle the future. It's surely not going to be pretty.