Well, that was a refreshing interlude

The Miers saga has ended, to no one's surprise, and I suspect that we're not going to chew on this one for long. The conservatives won a victory of sorts against their own President but will have to wait and see what their prize is, they may be disappointed. I have said before that I suspected that Ms. Miers was the reliably conservative vote that the President hinted she would be, so I'm not sad to see her nomination withdrawn. Conservatives are sure that the White House, after feeling the power of their wrath, will not cross them and will obediently send up a "solid conservative" with a long public record.

This event may not resonate much outside of the beltway and the blogosphere, but it has been noted by Congress and political press, and they are certainly not feeling as frightened of this White House as they might have felt some weeks ago. I'm, wary of predicting the actions of this administration, at least in this term, but I cannot imagine them feeling confident about a battle over the filibuster at this point. I would expect that the next nominee will be remarkable for his or her extreme legal brilliance and nothing else. They will look for the closest thing to another John Roberts as can be found. The result might be the "consensus nominee" some Democrats have called for, in other words, an apparent centrist. More likely the nominee will be vaguely conservative but not very political.

As we all know, once people with strong minds get a lifetime appointment to the top job in their profession, they can change subtly and become more "progressive" and activist than before. It is easy to claim you would retrain power when you haven't got it. Somehow getting one's hands on the power to change the country make people want to try it.

In any case, the conservative are not going to want to rehash this episode. The Left will be equally eager to drop it. They want to rub salt into the administration's wounds, but are stuck either appearing to agree with arch conservatives or appearing to be supporters of Harriet Miers, who is certainly pro-life, and still a close adviser to Bush and a member of his staff. They are much more interested in Plamegate indictments or in attacking the new nominee, once he or she is announced.