Two to the right, two to the left

Okay, here's my favorite (so far) responses to Miers' withdrawal. First, from the Republican Llama Butchers (and, politics aside, I like that logo):

I've been trying all this time to analogize Dubya's pick of Miers to that scene in Bull Durham where Crash tells Nuke to hit the mascot on purpose in order to throw off the batter. After Nuke does so, Crash looks up at the batter, shrugs and says, "I dunno where it's goin'," and gives him an evil laugh. The next pitch, of course, is a perfect heater that catches the batter flat-footed.

I still hope this is what the White House had in mind, because the alternative explanation - that this was a genuinely accidental wild pitch - is rather unpleasant to contemplate.

In either case, if Dubya does bring the heat now, this whole issue vanishes. The base will rally round.

See, this is what Democrats mean when we say Republicans are "in denial." We see a president whose failures have all caught up with him in one year. From WMD to the Plame scandal to being anti-torture unless it's us doing the torturing to a diminished and depleted military.

It's no secret that I'm a Democrat, but I'd think even Republicans would be wondering if Presidents ever recover from years as bad as Bush has had. But no, what they see is an evil genius who probably needed to be taken down a peg and reminded what his base is, but who now can get up off the mat and make everything all right again.

Next, we have Brutally Honest, also right-wing, with an odd headline: Miers retires. I think the blogger means, "withdraws." But he further goes on to say:

It's said that one's character can be defined as the byproduct of how mistakes are handled. President Bush made a mistake with the Miers nomination. I'm hoping that his next choice will be properly credentialed, a strict constructionist and someone who conservative can not only get behind but get in the face of those on the left who will attempt to block the appointment.

Now is not the time to put forth a nominee that the left will embrace. Now is the time for a nominee to be named that will challenge the weak-kneed Republicans in the Senate to grow a spine.

My expectations of the Senate living up to that challenge are low sadly but much higher is the hope that President Bush will make amends.

So let me get this straight. You're pinning...your hopes...on how George...W...Bush...handles his mistakes. Um...how to put this...based on the President Bush that we liberals have been watching for five years...I wouldn't go uncorking that champaigne just yet.

I know we live in different worlds; in ours, President Bush does not admit failures well. My best guess, in my admittedly nonexpert opinion, is that he will put forth a nominee not much better, from the Republican POV, than Miers.

Good old Alberto "Geneva convention? What Geneva convention?" Gonzales seems a likely possibility...

And now here we are on the left, where Scott Shields writes:

Miers Withdraws: White House Bows To Far Right
That should be the headline of every newspaper in the nation tomorrow morning, as that's exactly what happened.
The only way for Bush to prove to the nation that he's not a complete and total hypocrite is to nominate a moderate or a moderate conservative. The 'Withdraw Miers' crowd can talk about qualifications all they want, but they have made far too many public statements about her lack of far right credentials to credibly claim that she was pushed out for anything but failing their right wing litmus test. Witness Michelle Malkin openly admitting that the 'documents' excuse was little more than window dressing (emphasis mine, of course):

Exit strategy hinged on refusal to release privileged White House documents. (Ed Morrissey and Charles Krauthammer called it.) Whatever. We know the real reasons. Now, onto a candidate that conservatives can be proud of, okay?

There's more on MyDD.

ETA: "TChris" also has some good things to say:

The president announced his intent to select a replacement for Harriet Miers in a “timely manner.” Miers was torpedoed by extremist critics in the president’s own party, raising the fear of an appeasement pick.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) cautioned Democrats to be careful what they wished for. "For those who were concerned that Harriet Miers was too conservative, you should not be too sanguine about this," Obama said.

Dick Durbin warned that the president is “almost certain to turn to a nominee that is embraced by the conservative wing of the Republican Party.” Harry Ried cautioned the president not to travel that road:

Harry Reid, D-Nevada, blamed "the radical right wing of the Republican Party" for ending Miers' nomination. "Apparently, Ms. Miers did not satisfy those who want to pack the Supreme Court with rigid ideologues," Reid said.

Again, there's more here at TalkLeft.