Pro-Life Republican Senators Say Harriet Miers Nomination Languishing 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 26, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading pro-life Republican senators are concerned that the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers is languishing in the Senate. They say Miers and the Bush administration have failed to make a solid case for her and that concerns about her abilities, the way her nomination was promoted and her lack of solid pro-life credentials is problematic.
After meeting in a weekly luncheon, several Republicans spoke with media outlets about their doubts.
Pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama GOP member who is one of the few to publicly support Miers, said he’s "uneasy about where we are" in the confirmation process.
"Some conservative people are concerned. That is pretty obvious," he observed.
Senator John Thune, a pro-life South Dakota Republican said Miers has become "a question mark."
"There is an awful lot of Republican senators who are saying we are going to wait and see," he told the New York Times.
Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota said he needed "to get a better feel for her intellectual capacity and judicial philosophy, core competence issues."
"I certainly go into this with concerns," Coleman told the Times.
Meanwhile, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is questioning her commitment to the pro-life cause, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter indicated Miers could benefit from a "crash course in constitutional law," and Sen. Lyndsey Graham of South Carolina said Miers needs to "step it up a notch" if she wants to be confirmed.
The senators were reluctant to talk about whether Miers should withdraw or if President Bush should pull the nomination.
Graham said it would be an affront to the president to ask him to withdraw Miers and he added that was a decision the two of them should make on their own.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are upset as well over the White House’s refusal to release confidential documents to the Senate about Miers’ involvement on issues as the White House general counsel.
