The Return of Harriet Miers

No, not really (hope I didn't scare ya). But we are seeing the return of the reaction to Harriet Miers as conservatives flip completely out over the House Republicans' forfeit of the ANWR drilling measure.

Here's PunditGuy:

Just now we hear about House GOP leaders scuttling a vote on a $51 billion dollar budget-cut package. Why? Because theyÂ?re worried about the backlash coming fromÂ?whom else...MODERATE REPUBLICANS who have chosen to tow the line of their Democratic friends.

What in the world is happening here? Did we somehow enter a cohones free zone? Is everyone wearing skirts with embroidered pink elephants on them?

Here's Wizbang:

I was on Capitol Hill in 1993 and saw first hand what 30 years of power had done to Democrats. The Republicans have only been in the majority 11 years, but in that time they've become every bit the disassociated fat cats that Tip O'Neil and his crew were.

Ouch, babe. And here's one seriously irate Anchoress:

I can'?t think of a single reason to vote to re-elect a any one of you.

The world is tilting, and you useless, ineffectual, dithering moneysuckers seem increasingly to be empty suits, given shape and movement not by ideas and a willingness to serve the electorate, but by wispy tufts of ambitious smoke. You seem directed toward nothing more than keeping your almighty Senate or House seat in your name. You give away your power, you give away your advantages in committee, you leave in place utterly feckless people like Arlen Specter and then, when you finally seem like you are on the cusp of doing something productive and right, like investigating the CIA or okaying drilling in a bare, muddly, uninhabitable tundra, you fall into a faint and go slinking back to your states and districts to gladhand and pump for money and then gladhand some more.

...

I used to believe that Americans got the leadership they deserved. I don'?t believe that anymore. I don'?t believe anyone "deserves" this sort of testacle-free, untrustworthy so-called "leadership."

(And yes, that's two references to nads -- or lack thereof -- in one post. A new record!)

Harriet Miers wasn't all that bad. She wasn't right for the Supreme Court, but she wasn't the black-hearted soul of evil that one might've thought she was based on the reaction to her. What she was, was the straw that broke the camel's back. She was the point at which the people who had been cutting the President slack couldn't find any more slack to cut.

It would be great if we could collect the oil from ANWR, but we can live without it. So in that sense, this issue doesn't seem to merit all this bile. But at this point, it's a surrendered bridge too far. The Republican base, the people who made these guys the majority, can think of a whole bunch of disappointments from this Congress and not very many victories. The ANWR fold, coupled with the absolute, clay-footed fear of cutting even a tiny fraction of a percent from the federal budget, is just the last straw.

The outcry from over Miers was loud enough that the President finally woke up, so we can only hope for a similar response from Congressional Republicans. But if they don't locate their spines (Or their dangly parts! Hat trick!), all those enthusiastic conservative voters are going to find better things to do next election day.