Earlier today, I suggested that Bush's nomination for Harriet Miers was all about the votes. At least for Bush.

So why the negative reaction from the Right? Perhaps critics on the Right simply don't trust Bush. One of our readers wrote the following:

I think Bush regards Miers as someone who will reliably vote as he desires.  But I think the multifaceted criticism she's facing is in large part a result of a variety of constituencies' differing perceptions as to what that means.  For example, GWB's electoral rhetoric notwithstanding, I have good reason to believe that he doesn't give a flip about gay marriage one way or the other.  So too with much of the religious right's agenda (despite the fact that he has needed their votes).  Religious conservatives are nervous about Miers because they're nervous about Bush.  So, too, movement conservatives (whether social, fiscal, etc.), because Bush has managed to arouse all of their suspicions over the last five years.  On the flip side, I think Reid's early support for Miers derives at least in part from his belief that Bush's personal politics aren't 100% consonant with his public politics.  Bush the politician has staked out his ground; Bush the man has not, and many are suspicious that  the former and the latter are different people entirely.

UPDATE: Virginia Postrel also suggests that it's more than votes:

I don't think the activist rage over the Miers nomination stems primarily from fears that she'll "vote wrong" on the Court, as though the Supreme Court were a legislature. If you're a results-oriented conservative, she'll may very well do fine, just as Fred Barnes assured viewers on Fox a couple of nights ago. (If only there were some evidence of how she'd come to the "right" results...)

No, I think people are enraged in large measure because, given a terribly important appointment opportunity, Bush has made himself look like the dumb, parochial, cronyist hack that his enemies have always said he was . That makes anyone who actively supported him look like a fool.

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