The REAL Problem with Harriet

Contrary to the bloviations, recriminations, and other fatuities posted regarding the Miers nomination, the Washington Post says the following:

For Harriet Miers, the "murder boards" were aptly named. Day after day in a room in the White House complex, colleagues from the Bush administration grilled her on constitutional law, her legal background and her past speeches in practice sessions meant to mimic Senate hearings.
Her uncertain, underwhelming responses left her confirmation managers so disturbed they decided not to open up the sessions to the friendly outside lawyers they usually invite to participate in prepping key nominees.

...By nearly all accounts, the 24 days of the Miers nomination was hobbled by a succession of miscalculations. President Bush bypassed his own selection process to pick Miers, his onetime personal lawyer and White House counsel since February. His aides ignored warnings by some of the administration's closest conservative allies that she would prove difficult to confirm, and took for granted that its base would ultimately stick with the president.

Captain's Quarters pins the tail on the right suspect:

The White House selection process that produced Miers can be boiled down to one sentence: Bush liked her, and no one bothered to check her out properly.

...This failure started at the top, and as more came out about Miers and her shifting positions on potentially important Constitutional issues and legal scholarship, that failure became more obvious.

For what it's worth, the management error Bush made is not uncommon, and often has no ill effects.

Not this time.