The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Say what you will about Harriet Miers's haters, her withdrawal went exactly according to the exit strategy graciously proposed by Charles Krauthammer last week:

Sen. Lindsey Graham has been a staunch and public supporter of this nominee. Yet on Wednesday he joined Brownback in demanding privileged documents from Miers's White House tenure.

Finally, a way out: irreconcilable differences over documents.

...But there is no way that any president would release this kind of information -- "policy documents" and "legal analysis" -- from such a close confidante. It would forever undermine the ability of any president to get unguarded advice.

That creates a classic conflict, not of personality, not of competence, not of ideology, but of simple constitutional prerogatives...

Right at the top of the AP dispatch on Miers's withdrawal we have the President in his statement practically reading from Krauthammer's column:

President Bush ... blamed her withdrawal on calls in the Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration has insisted were protected by executive privilege.

"It is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House _ disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel," Bush said. "Harriet Miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers...

File it under Great Minds Think Alike.

topics:
Constitution, NATO