A Pick That Blurs Party Lines and Stalls 'Rapid Response'

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401551.html?referrer=email
A Pick That Blurs Party Lines and Stalls 'Rapid Response'
White House Works To Sell Miers to Skeptics on Right

By Michael A. Fletcher and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 5, 2005; Page A06

While President Bush yesterday led a public campaign to shore up support for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, his top White House aides and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman launched a behind-the-scenes barrage of phone calls and e-mail to influential conservatives urging them to overcome their skepticism.

The effort to rally the president's usual allies met with uncertain results, winning some support but leaving conservatives coolly uncommitted about whether Bush made a wise choice.
"She may turn out to be the greatest thing since Antonin Scalia, but when will we know that?" said Jan LaRue, chief counsel of Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy group that is so far unconvinced by the lobbying. LaRue said that her organization cannot endorse Miers until it learns more about her legal views.

Some liberal advocacy groups, meanwhile, voiced cautious optimism that she could prove to be a moderate on some issues most important to their members.

The hesitancy and evident puzzlement about Miers is noteworthy in a capital in which most political advocacy groups in recent years have been believers in the imperative of "rapid response."