Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers picked up new conservative support on Wednesday, but Republicans remain split over whether President Bush's White House counsel is a suitable replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor on the High Court.
"President Bush has an excellent record of appointing judges who recognize the proper role of the courts, which is to interpret the law according to its actual text, and not to legislate from the bench," David N. O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, told cnn.com. "We believe that Harriet Miers is another nominee who will abide by the text and history of the Constitution."
A fellow Texan, GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a former judge and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also came out for Miers after meeting with her Wednesday morning. Cornyn said he believes her Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing could begin as early as Nov. 7, but he didn't need to wait that long to support Miers.
"I don't need to reserve judgment because I know she's the right person for the job now," Cornyn, who has known Miers for 15 years, said in the report.
But according to the story, Cornyn acknowledged that Miers faces problems from some conservatives. "The president in a sense has disarmed some of his critics, but also made some of his supporters nervous by this nomination," he said.
Conservatives in some cases are expressing outright opposition, some are in wait-and-see mode and others are silent, all bad signs for a Bush administration used to having the full backing of all wings of the GOP when it takes on the Senate's minority Democrats over judicial selection, cnn.com reported.
"I'm getting reports on both sides," said Paul Weyrich, a conservative leader from the Free Congress Foundation. "Some people are quite enthused about her and other people are very upset. The grass-roots are not happy, I can tell you that."
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