Inside the Beltway

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Catfight

A conservative catfight, if you will.

On one side, you have the Independent Women's Forum, which supports President Bush's nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to fill the seat vacated by retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Miss Miers "has had a long and distinguished career as one of the foremost lawyers in the country," says IWF Senior Vice President Michelle Bernard, who adds that her group "rejects the feminist argument that the seat to which she was nominated is a 'woman's seat.'"

By originally nominating John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Justice O'Connor, she explains, Mr. Bush laid to rest the notion that any one sex or ethnic group owns a particular seat on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, although the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute thinks Miss Miers is a smart woman and "able lawyer," the group of right-leaning women is concerned about the nomination "on a number of levels."

Particularly "having been told to expect a nominee in the mold of Justices Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia," the institute notes.

"It is sure to be frustrating to accomplished conservative judges who have worked hard to distinguish themselves on the bench," the group says. "It will be frustrating to those accomplished lawyers who have labored in the trenches, practicing constitutional law and helping to establish clear legal precedents ...

"What does the president's selection of Miers say to them? 'Thanks for your efforts to preserve and uphold the Constitution, but we do not have the political will to defend you or your views.'"

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