MIers: Confusing In A Good Way?

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh grilled Dick Cheney over why the president didn't name a Supreme Court nominee with clearer Conservative credentials. Fair enough question; I admit confusion myself. But let's see how the other side is responding:

People for the American Way:

"With no past judicial experience for the senators to consider, the burden will be on Miers to be forthright with the Senate and the American people."

Americans United for Church and State:

“It is vital for the senators to determine Miers’ understanding of the First Amendment,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Miers has never been a judge, and it is imperative that the judiciary committee uncover her judicial philosophy and her views on the relationship between religion and government.”

The ACLU site had nothing posted as of this morning.

NARAL, the pro-abortion flamers:

"The burden is on the Bush administration and Harriet Miers to prove to the American people that she will respect and protect our fundamental freedoms, including a woman's right to choose. Miers does not appear to have a public record to assure America's pro-choice majority that she is a moderate in the tradition of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was the critical swing vote that protected women’s reproductive health and freedom."

It's interesting to note that when Roberts was nominating, NARAL's Web site blared that women would die because of the nomination. People for the American Way were also quick out of the chute with gloom-and-doom predictions for life as we know it.

Pres. Bush seems to take deep pleasure in confounding his opposition, and he's done it again with the Miers nomination. For a day or two, at least, they've been caught completely flat-footed.

In a nation that remembers Teddy Kennedy's swift and brutal disassembly of Judge Bork, confusion on the first day is a good thing -- but it's hardly a win. Kennedy, quoted in that other CSM, appears ready for a fight:

"Although the [Bush] administration did not provide the [Judiciary] Committee with files relating to John Roberts's service as Deputy Solicitor General for the United States, we were able to receive from the Reagan Library extensive memoranda and files relating to John Roberts's White House service in the Reagan Administration. The American people are entitled - at a minimum - to the same kind of memoranda and files relating to Ms. Miers."