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The interviewer sucked but Boxer responded beautifully:
Is Miers' withdrawal good for Democrats:
- It's bad for the country. It's been 20 years since something like this happened. It happened because the president has a certain arrogance. I hope he will follow President Reagan's example and find someone more mainstream, like Sandra Day O'Connor.
The president seemed to hear from the right-wing on this nomination and that's why it was withdrawn; what are you expecting from him on the next nominee:
- It depends on who is advising the president. He looks very weak right now. He looks like he kowtowed to the right-wing of his party. This was a fig-leaf excuse that he can't hand over the papers. He needs to pick a mainstream nominee, and surely there are many out there like that. If he does that he can regain the confidence of the country. If he goes to the right, he looks weaker than ever.
Why didn't we hear more from Democrats opposing Miers?
- We believe in the process. We were looking forward to the hearings to learn more about Harriet Miers. We were hopeful we would get more documentation. We wanted to see the process proceed. We saw the right-wing interfere with the process, a very weakened president bend to the right-wing and a woman very ill-served by this. There is no rush, O'Connor will stay as long as required - she is a patriot and is willing to stay - the White House needs to take its time and make a good choice.
Given the political climate, can the White House take its time:
- That's why it should take its time. We may have indictments tomorrow, we have over 17,000 soldiers dead and wounded with no end in sight, we have skyrocketing gas prices, victims of Hurricane Katrina separated from families, people in Florida still without power and the list goes on and on. This isn't the time for a battle on the homefront. If he is a strong president - and I hope he is because a weak president is very bad for the country - he will conduct a thorough search and talk to Democrats and Republicans to find a good candidate.
What are your views that this could divide the Congress even further - people are using the words "filibuster" and "nuclear option."
- I haven't heard anyone saying that, our goal is to avoid that. The Republicans control everything and they need to slow down. If the president moves to the right to appease those who brought Miers down he will look very weak in the eyes of the American people.
I tried to transcribe it as well as I could, but these are not exact quotes. I thought she came across very well. I liked her list of problems the president is facing, but talked about how we can do things better. Pat Leahy as well. Talking about uniting the country, finding a mainstream nominee the people can support.
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