WASHINGTON — President Bush faced a growing Republican backlash Wednesday over the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court, with several GOP senators threatening to oppose her confirmation and top conservative activists questioning her qualifications during a tense confrontation with White House advisors.
In an effort to quell the discontent, administration aides and allies were dispatched to plead with lawmakers and party activists to give Miers -- a longtime Bush friend and lawyer -- a chance to prove herself.
But on Capitol Hill, some GOP senators made it clear that they were not now in Miers' corner. And at a weekly meeting in Washington of leading conservatives, many in the crowd berated Ed Gillespie, the White House point man on judicial nominations, over the president's choice.
"With this nomination, we have ratified the strategy of the left and they have won," said Richard Lessner, former executive director of the American Conservative Union. "With this pick, the White House has ratified what the left did to Bork."
He was referring to Robert H. Bork, President Reagan's conservative nominee for the court who was rejected by the Senate after liberals challenged his well-documented views.
Many conservatives are complaining that they don't know enough about Miers, who has never served as a judge or argued a case before the Supreme Court, to know whether she would support their causes.
The swelling doubts about her contrasted with the early reaction to Bush's previous Supreme Court nominee, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who won near-unanimous accolades from Republicans for his intellect and qualifications before winning easy Senate confirmation.
As of now, the conservative doubts about Miers do not seem likely to derail her nomination. But her confirmation might come at a price for Republicans.
With the GOP bedeviled by questions about the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and ethics questions facing congressional leaders, the party's base could become demoralized, undermining Republicans in next year's midterm elections.
On Wednesday, skepticism about Miers' nomination came from some GOP senators who normally are party loyalists.
"There are a lot more people -- men, women and minorities -- that are more qualified in my opinion by their experience than she is," Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said in a television interview. "I don't just automatically salute or take a deep bow anytime a nominee is sent [to the Senate].... I have to find out who these people are, and right now, I'm not satisfied with what I know."
