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Word out of the White House this morning is that in prep sessions for her hearings, Miers has been working on outlining her arguments that Roe. v. Wade is "settled law."

This takes on greater significance given John Fund's report on the Arlington Group's conference call to discuss the Miers nomination. White House staff involved in the Miers nomination process knew this story was coming over the weekend, and have been attempting to construct some push back on it. "There really isn't any," says one outside consultant in the matter. "It's not like Roberts who had his own testimony to fall back on in his discussion of Roe during his Supreme Court hearings. Harriet has nothing." Roberts had testified two years ago that he believed Roe was settled law.

Similarly, with White House and former White House staff pushing back on the portrayal last week that Miers was deeply involved in the vetting of Bush judiciary nominees (internal counts show she would have been involved in no more than 3, and two of those may have been re-nominations), look for new information to come to light about Miers' true role in pressing the ABA to abandon a neutral position on Roe v. Wade and abortion cases.

This story was critical to the White House's efforts in the first days of the nomination to give conservative critics some indication of where Miers stood ideologically. "Her role was not what has been portrayed thus far," says the outside consultant. "The White House was ready to move in another direction message-wise this week, but now it appears facts are going to get in the way."

topics:
Abortion, Law, Supreme Court