Publius is making sense, here:
For now, the question across the political spectrum is why Miers? Or more precisely, why not someone from the farm team? I think the answer is simple: torture.
Of all the scandals and junkets and leaks and what have you, the one that history will consider the most serious is the authorization of torture and the flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention. As Marty Lederman and Andrew Sullivan (to his credit) have made clear again and again, this administration is guilty of war crimes. And they know it. That’s why they won’t release the Yoo memo of March 2003 (and I think a good case can be made for charging Yoo with war crimes). That’s why Cheney lobbied to defeat McCain’s torture bill and why Bush (the alleged Christian) is threatening to veto it. Of all the scandals, this is the one that probably keeps them up at night – and it is the one that will dog them through the centuries. In the spring of 2003 (and before), this administration gave the CIA and the DOD authorization to torture prisoners and relied on specious legal arguments to justify it.
And one day, when all the facts are finally known (as they inevitably will), the legal reckoning will come. And I suspect that the Supreme Court will ultimately have the final say on a lot of these issues (though if I were Donald Rumsfeld, I wouldn’t go on any educational tours of the Hague anytime soon, or for the rest of his life). Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld know how guilty they are. That’s why (I would argue) that Bush’s top priority in picking Justices has been the nominee’s deference to the executive branch in its wartime activities. I have no idea how Justices Roberts and Miers will rule, but I strongly suspect they will not hold the administration’s feet to the fire for its detention policies. Hell, Miers even participated in this stuff. [On an aside, I suspect that’s why Bush so desperately wanted Gonzales on the Court – and we may yet see him nominated for precisely the same reason.]
Yeah, it’s depressing, but read the rest.