…some prospective Supreme Court nominees conservatives would have preferred withdrew their names from President Bush’s “short list” before the nomination — raising the possibility that Miss Miers wasn’t Mr. Bush’s first pick.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said he spoke with Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove on Oct. 1 — two days before the Miers nomination — and was told that “Harriet Miers was at the top of the short list.” Also on that list were several candidates that many conservatives say they would have preferred, Mr. Dobson said …

“Well, what Karl told me is that some of those individuals took themselves off that list,” he said, according to a transcript obtained last night. “They would not allow their names to be considered because the process has become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter that they didn’t want to subject themselves or the members of their families to it.”

I guess this is proof that dirty tactics like dumpster-diving are enough to win the day.

I’m sorry to hear that we don’t have any conservatives strong enough to stand up to the fight. Whether it be the candidates themselves or the one responsible for nominating them. We now officially live in a world where a Democrat can nominate the leader of an extreme left wing organization and both gladly walk hand in hand before the confirmation hearings, but a Republican has to nominate a friend with no paper trail because there’s nobody else willing to step up to the challenge.