Dobson Discusses Harriet Miers Supreme Court Pick, Abortion Views 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 12, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Focus on the Family founder and president Dr. James Dobson addressed criticism of his support for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers on his national radio program Wednesday. Senate Judiciary Committee leaders accused him of having some sort of inside information from the Bush administration that led him to endorse Miers.
Dobson said in a broadcast last week, "When you know some of the things that I know, that I probably shouldn’t know, you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."
However, Dobson assured the listeners of his nationally syndicated radio program that he didn’t receive any improper information or assurances from Bush advisor Karl Rove that Miers would vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion decision.
Dobson said he could talk about the conversation with Rove now because Rove gave him permission to discuss the details of their private call.
"Karl Rove had shared with me her judicial philosophy which was consistent with the promises that President Bush had made when he was campaigning," Dobson explained.
"Then he suggested that I might want to validate that opinion by talking to people in Texas who knew Miers personally and he gave me the names of some individuals that I could call," Dobson added. "And I quickly followed up on that conversation and got glowing reports from a federal judge in Texas, Ed Kinkeade and a Texas Supreme Court justice, Nathan Hecht, who is highly respected and has known Harriet Miers for more than 25 years."
Dobson said his comments about knowing something he shouldn’t have known referred to the fact that he had been told that Miers was on the president’s short list of names for the high court the day before Bush made his nomination announcement.
He said his comments also referred to the fact that he had been told how several pro-life appeals court judges that pro-life advocates wanted to see be picked for the spot declined to be considered. Dobson said he was told that they didn’t want to endure the brutal confirmation process.
Dobson also said he learned that President Bush was looking only for a woman to appoint to the position, which eliminated many of the top names that Washington observers had bandied about in the days leading up to Miers’ nomination.
"But I was not gonna be the one to reveal this. I knew that people would eventually be aware of some of that information, but I didn’t think I had the right to say it. And so, I made my comment," Dobson said.
"What did Karl Rove say to me that I knew on Monday that I couldn’t reveal," Dobson explained. "Well, it’s what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an Evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life."
"In other words, there is a characterization of her that was given to me before the President had actually made this decision," Dobson concluded.
