CALL DOBSON TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS
Conservatives Are Wary Over President's Selection

From the New York Times courtesy of Eschaton:

In each call and in a series of teleconferences throughout the day, representatives of the White House promised their conservative supporters that as White House counsel, Ms. Miers had played a central role in picking the many exemplars of conservatism among Mr. Bush's previous nominees.

Some of the efforts evidently bore fruit. By day's end, Mr. Dobson, one of the most influential evangelical conservatives, welcomed the nomination. "Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about," he said in an interview, explaining his decision to speak out in support of Ms. Miers. He declined to discuss his conversations with the White House.

And

Beginning at 9 a.m., the White House and the Republican Party began organizing a series of nearly a half-dozen conference calls with conservative organizers to relieve anxieties about Ms. Miers's views. In one call, friends of Ms. Miers, including Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, testified to her evangelical Christian faith and devoted participation in the theologically conservative Valley View Christian Church in Dallas.

Mr. Hecht, in particular, assured them that she personally opposed abortion and had once attended "pro-life" events with him, said participants in the call. (He made similar statements in an interview with Marvin Olasky, editor of the Christian conservative World magazine, published on its Web site.)

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I'm going to essentially rip off Atrios' talking points on this, but what's going on seems to be pretty outrageous, so cut me some slack. It's pretty easy to expect that Miers will do during her confirmation hearings what Roberts did during his. That is, she's going to decline to answer when questioned about her views on Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Well, okay. I guess there's nothing we can do about a stealth candidate. But the White House, trying to placate suspicious fundamentalists, wants to have it both ways: lead the Democrats to believe that she might support abortion rights by keeping her quiet on the subject, while assuring key Republicans that she does, indeed, oppose abortion. Again, I guess there's nothing we can do about that--White House personel have the same free speech rights that everybody has. However, it sounds like James Dobson, the leader of the fundamentalist group Focus on the Family, was handed secret information about Miers in order to shore up the support of his constituency. If they can give that kind of info to Dobson, then they have to give it to the Senate Judicial Committee, and if they don't, Dobson must be called to testify about what they told him. I've seen Bush playing fast and loose with the truth for years now, but this is way over the top. I'm outraged, myself. What about you?

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