WHAT DID MR. DOBSON KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT...:

Salazar sweats Miers: Evangelist Dobson's inside knowledge unnerves senator (M.E. Sprengelmeyer, October 5, 2005, Rocky Mountain News)

If Focus on the Family founder James Dobson knows a secret about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Sen. Ken Salazar wants to know what it is.

Some prominent conservatives have expressed skepticism or dismay over Miers' nomination, saying her beliefs are less than crystal clear. But Dobson, one of the country's most outspoken evangelical Christian leaders, praised the pick. [...]

The president's lead political adviser, Karl Rove, reportedly called Dobson and other conservatives ahead of time to reassure them about the Miers pick.

Afterward, Dobson told The New York Times he supported her because of her religious faith and because he has reason to believe she opposes abortion.

"Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about," he told the newspaper.

That statement bothers Salazar, a first-term Denver Democrat who describes Miers as a "blank slate" whose views are little known.

Miers Called an Opponent of Abortion (David G. Savage and Scott Gold, October 5, 2005, LA Times)

Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers is personally opposed to abortion, her longtime companion said Tuesday, but he added that doesn't mean she will vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Nathan L. Hecht, a Texas Supreme Court justice, has been a close companion of Miers since they first worked together for a Dallas law firm 30 years ago. His comments are the clearest indication to date of Miers' view on abortion — which, as with other issues she would be likely to face on the high court, is unknown.

Hecht is known as the most conservative member of the conservative Texas Supreme Court. "He's sort of the [Antonin] Scalia of that court: smart, aggressive and very conservative," said University of Texas law professor Douglas Laycock.

Hecht, a vocal opponent of the abortion right, said in an interview Tuesday that Miers shared his views. The two attend the evangelical Valley View Christian Church near Dallas.

"Harriet goes to a church that is pro-life. She has for 25 years," he said. "She gives them a lot of money. Her personal views lie in that direction."

Strong Grounding in the Church Could Be a Clue to Miers's Priorities (Michael Grunwald, Jo Becker and John Pomfret, October 5, 2005, Washington Post)

One evening in the 1980s, several years after Harriet Miers dedicated her life to Jesus Christ, she attended a lecture at her Dallas evangelical church with Nathan Hecht, a colleague at her law firm and her on-again, off-again boyfriend. The speaker was Paul Brand, a surgeon and the author of "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made," a best-selling exploration of God and the human body.

When the lecture was over, Miers said words Hecht had never heard from her before. "I'm convinced that life begins at conception," Hecht recalled her saying. According to Hecht, now a Texas Supreme Court justice, Miers has believed ever since that abortion is "taking a life."

"I know she is pro-life," said Hecht, one of the most conservative judges in Texas. "She thinks that after conception, it's not a balancing act -- or if it is, it's a balancing of two equal lives."

Hecht and other confidants of Miers all pledge that if the Senate confirms her nomination to the Supreme Court, her judicial values will be guided by the law and the Constitution. But they say her personal values have been shaped by her abiding faith in Jesus, and by her membership in the massive red-brick Valley View Christian Church, where she was baptized as an adult, served on the missions committee and taught religious classes. At Valley View, pastors preach that abortion is murder, that the Bible is the literal word of God and that homosexuality is a sin -- although they also preach that God loves everybody.

In Midcareer, a Turn to Faith to Fill a Void (EDWARD WYATT and SIMON ROMERO, 10/05/05, NY Times)

It was a pivotal personal transformation for the woman now named for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, not entirely unlike that experienced by President Bush and others in the Texas political and business establishment of that time.

Ms. Miers, born Roman Catholic, became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with Republicans than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. She joined the missions committee of her church, which is against legalized abortion, and friends and colleagues say she rarely looked back at her past as a Democrat.

"There weren't that many Republicans in Texas in those days," said Merrie Spaeth, a director of media relations at the White House under Ronald Reagan who met Ms. Miers after moving to Dallas in 1985. "Harriet is what you would call a Southern lady. It is marvelous to watch her in meetings with huge egos, where she allows people to think good results are the product of their own ideas."

To persuade the right to embrace Ms. Miers's selection despite her lack of a clear record on social issues, representatives of the White House put Justice Hecht on at least one conference call with influential social conservative organizers on Monday to talk about her faith and character.

Some evangelical Protestants were heralding the possibility that one of their own would have a seat on the court after decades of complaining that their brand of Christianity met condescension and exclusion from the American establishment.

In an interview Tuesday on the televangelist Pat Robertson's "700 Club," Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Christian conservative American Center for Law and Justice, said Ms. Miers would be the first evangelical Protestant on the court since the 1930's. "So this is a big opportunity for those of us who have a conviction, that share an evangelical faith in Christianity, to see someone with our positions put on the court," Mr. Sekulow said.

Which is why libertarians and neocons are so furious. They still haven't forgiven President Bush for beating John McCain and now they get an evangelical on the Court? Unacceptable.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 5, 2005 7:48 AM