NYT: New Questions From the Right on Court Pick (Morale Low Base)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/politicsspecial1/06nominate.html?hp&ex=1128571200&en=463efd50c20a34c3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

A growing chorus of conservatives from Republican senators to the columnist George F. Will cast skepticism Wednesday on President Bush's selection of Harriet E. Miers for the Supreme Court, expressing worry not only about unanswered questions on her conservatism but also about her legal credentials.

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"I want to be assured that she is not going to be another Souter," Mr. Allen said, referring to Justice David H. Souter, a George H. W. Bush appointee who has upheld abortion rights and other liberal precedents. "I understand the president knows her well, but I don't."

Ed Gillespie, the former Republican Party chairman helping to shepherd Ms. Miers through Senate hearings, was sent Wednesday to shore up support at a weekly meeting of conservative advocacy groups convened by the strategist Grover Norquist. There, Mr. Gillespie was pelted by criticism that the president had failed to pick either a committed conservative or a legal star.

"There was pretty much unanimity," said one conservative who attended the meeting and who spoke anonymously because confidentiality was a condition of the meeting. "Morale is low right now at the base."