Miers and abortion

*Thought I'd make this a post on it's own. It's also below in the inital "Miers" post.*

Miers and abortion:

President Bush's choice to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice and moderate abortion rights supporter Sandra Day O'Connor was a leader in an unsuccessful fight to get the nation's largest lawyers' group to reconsider its pro-abortion rights stance.

(snip)

Although Miers' personal view of abortion was not explicit in 1993, Leonard Leo, a White House adviser on Supreme Court nominations highlighted her efforts as part of the reason that "conservatives should be very happy with this selection."

"As a leader of the bar, Harriet Miers was a fearless and very strong proponent of conservative legal views. She led a campaign to have the American Bar Association end its practice of supporting abortion-on-demand and taxpayer-funded abortions," Leo said a memo on the Miers nomination.

Was Miers just looking to make the ABA more abortion neutral, or did she really feel that Roe v. Wade should be overturned? Unfortunately, there's not much out there to suggest an answer to that question, and we may have to wait for her vote on the Supreme Court to find out.

As far as the right's disappointment of a "stealth nominee," I can offer them this bit of solace. A majority of the country still supports abortion, so choosing a nominee that would overtly smack them in the face may not be the best way to garner public support. Just as the President has extreme right wing views on some issues, he did not campaign overtly on them. He chose more middle of the road stances to promote, and of course the idea we would get hit by terrorists if Kerry became President.

Still, conservatives to this point have been very pleased with what he's accomplished.

I simply cannot see the President picking anyone pro-choice to serve on the court. And this may be another instance of hard core right with a middle of the road face.

*UPDATE* Ezra at TAPPED sees things differently.

*UPDATE, TOO* James Dobson seems pleased:

All we can say now is that Harriet Miers appears to be an outstanding nominee for the Supreme Court.

I think it relates to Miers' view on Spongebob's sexual orientation, myself.

It should be noted, too, that the press release seems written more as a "Bush promised us and we should trust him" rather than a "Miers has the goods we wanted" kind of thing.