Supreme Courtship

The White House plans to woo conservatives to Harriet Miers' side by focusing attention on her "born again" status. From Terry Neal's column:

A Republican strategist involved in the front lines of the battle for the Miers nomination, who asked to not be named because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said the White House plans to regain the upper hand by focusing on the nominee's conversion to evangelical Christianity.

"Conservatives love a fight with liberals," the strategist said. "And one of the things liberals are scared to death of is organized religion. And Harriet Miers is a born-again Christian. When liberal groups and others begin to read about her affirming the Texas sodomy law, contributing to pro-life groups and her religious faith, they're going to go crazy. It's already happening now."

In other words, for the president to regain his political capital, he'll recast the debate as a traditional one between left and right. But it will work only if he can get his own party to play along.

Of course, Democrats weren't supposed to ask about John Robert's religious beliefs, but this is different. And Dems were pilloried for wanting to know more about Roberts' positions, but conservatives want the goods on Miers. Not that there's a litmus test or anything. Anyway, what more do they need to know?