2008 Woodie Awards
Religion Takes Center Stage in Miers' Confirmation
Ron Hutcheson
Issue date: 10/17/05 Section: News
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President Bush and his advisers on Wednesday defended their efforts to inject religion into the confirmation fight over Harriet Miers, suggesting that faith is a legitimate factor in evaluating her nomination to the Supreme Court.
Presidential aides have cited Miers' membership in an evangelical Christian church in urging conservatives to support her.
"People want to know why I picked Harriet Miers. They want to know Harriet Miers' background," Bush said. "Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion. Part of it has to do with the fact that she was a pioneer woman and a trailblazer in the law in Texas."
Miers' religious beliefs have taken on a bigger role in the confirmation fight since Christian broadcaster James Dobson cited her church affiliation as one reason for his support. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, an evangelical group that opposes abortion, told his listeners last week that he learned about Miers' faith in a telephone conversation with presidential adviser Karl Rove on October 1, two days before Bush announced her nomination.
Miers has been an active member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas, a nondenominational congregation that urges members to put their religious views to work in the community.
Democrats accused the president and his aides of talking to their conservative allies in code, in effect assuring them that Miers would oppose abortion on the court.
"The rest of America, including the Senate, deserves to know what he and the White House know," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday, referring to Dobson. "We don't confirm justices of the Supreme Court on a wink and a nod. And a litmus test is no less a litmus test by using whispers and signals."
In another development Wednesday, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson referred to Miers' faith in threatening political retaliation against Republican senators who oppose her nomination.
"Now they're going to turn against a Christian who is a conservative picked by a conservative president and they're going to vote against her for confirmation? Not on your sweet life, if they want to stay in office," Robertson said on his "700 Club" television show.
Presidential aides have cited Miers' membership in an evangelical Christian church in urging conservatives to support her.
"People want to know why I picked Harriet Miers. They want to know Harriet Miers' background," Bush said. "Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion. Part of it has to do with the fact that she was a pioneer woman and a trailblazer in the law in Texas."
Miers' religious beliefs have taken on a bigger role in the confirmation fight since Christian broadcaster James Dobson cited her church affiliation as one reason for his support. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, an evangelical group that opposes abortion, told his listeners last week that he learned about Miers' faith in a telephone conversation with presidential adviser Karl Rove on October 1, two days before Bush announced her nomination.
Miers has been an active member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas, a nondenominational congregation that urges members to put their religious views to work in the community.
Democrats accused the president and his aides of talking to their conservative allies in code, in effect assuring them that Miers would oppose abortion on the court.
"The rest of America, including the Senate, deserves to know what he and the White House know," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday, referring to Dobson. "We don't confirm justices of the Supreme Court on a wink and a nod. And a litmus test is no less a litmus test by using whispers and signals."
In another development Wednesday, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson referred to Miers' faith in threatening political retaliation against Republican senators who oppose her nomination.
"Now they're going to turn against a Christian who is a conservative picked by a conservative president and they're going to vote against her for confirmation? Not on your sweet life, if they want to stay in office," Robertson said on his "700 Club" television show.