President Bush is sure that the Senate will confirm Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I expected the Democrats to oppose Harriet Miers because, as White House counsel, her views probably align very closely with those of George W. Bush. The apparent total absence of any information indicating what her personal views are should be sending up red flags.

So it is kind of funny that it seems to be the Republicans who are most disturbed about Harriet Miers. They are just as concerned that her personal views on hot-button topics are unknown. They want to be sure she is an ideologue who will swing the Supreme Court clearly to the right.

I am amused. Although it seems like a lot of sophisticated maneuvering, I half-suspect that Harriet Miers was selected precisely because she is a "stealth" nominee. If her right-wing tendencies have not been documented, then there is no basis for Democrats to oppose her appointment. So she can be sneaked in as an unknown quantity, even though no one can doubt that George W. Bush is fully aware of her ideological leanings.

But I say "half-suspect" because it seems doubtful to me that the blatantly in-your-face machinations of the Bush administration are up to the kind of subtle misdirection required to pull this off. But maybe that's what is going wrong. It is so subtle that the Republicans are also uneasy. How hard would it have been to send out word to the Republicans that she she is a right-wing ideologue but no one is saying anything until after her confirmation? Unless they were afraid of a leak.

The reason I suspect Harriet Miers is a right-wing ideologue and that SOME people know it is because she was endorsed by James Dobson and Pat Robertson. Let's face it. If Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini had endorsed an "ally" during World War II, just how much confidence would the Allied Powers have had in that endorsement? James Dobson is a little more careful in his pronoucements, but Pat Robertson has demonstrated again and again that he is out of touch with reality. God sent Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans to punish the sinners who live there and American for allowing it? Give me a break.

I am encouraged that the Democrats seem to be sitting back and letting the Republicans be the "obstructionists" in the case of Harriet Miers. If the Republicans all suddenly get behind her nomination, though, Democrats should start asking questions under oath. That won't stop Republicans from lying (it never does), but it will provide indictable grounds during future investigations.