Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:33:10
Federalist Society’s Dilemma
- Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society faced a dilemma with the nomination of Harriet Myers.
- They had to decide whether to trust Bush’s judgment or fight back against Myers, risking their relationship with a Republican president.
- Fighting back could demonstrate their power to future presidents, ensuring they don’t defy the ‘master plan’.
- They chose to fight, signaling their intent to challenge future nominations that didn’t align with their goals. Transcript: David Sirota Particularly when it comes to the federal judiciary. For Leonard Leo and the master planners, it all presented a big dilemma. Should they accept on faith that Myers was a conservative and defer to Bush? Or should they do the then unthinkable, fight back against Myers and wage a very public war against a Republican president who’d been their champion? The latter would be highly risky. The master plan could fight and lose and look weak and irrelevant. But if the tactic worked, it would send a message to all future presidents that they defy the master plan at their peril. And so they chose war. And the starting gun was fired by one of those recurring characters in the master plan cinematic universe. Richard Nixon’s Watergate Hatchet Man, Gerald Ford’s duplicitous lawyer, Ronald Reagan’s failed nominee, the one, the only Robert Bork.
Time 0:34:47
Harriet Myers’ Nomination Borked
- When Bush nominated Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court, dark money from the Master Plan turned against her.
- TV ads criticizing Myers began to run, and the Federalist Society and right-wing noise machine amplified the negative reaction.
- Republican senators, feeling pressure from their voters, informed Bush that Myers’ nomination was in serious trouble.
- Myers withdrew her nomination, effectively being ‘borked’ by the conservative legal movement.
- The Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee said that the conservative groups drowned her and the president out.
- This was a major victory for the master planners, demonstrating their power to influence the party’s direction. Transcript: David Sirota As she prepared for Senate hearings, TV ads started running. Speaker 2 Even the best leaders make mistakes. Conservatives support President Bush, but not Supreme Court nominee Harriet Myers. David Sirota One reporter referred to Myers as suitor in a skirt. Really? The furious reaction from the Federalist Society crowd and the right-wing noise machine became too much to bear for Republican senators who knew well that their own voters back home Had been trained to focus on the judge issue. According to sources on Capitol Hill and in the White House, yesterday morning, top Republican senators Bill Frist and Mitch McConnell came to the White House and gently told the president That Myers’ nomination was in serious trouble. In the end, Bush’s aides knew there was no way out. Speaker 2 Good evening, everyone. The White House says she was not pushed, but in the end, it was a perfect storm within the president’s own party that led to Harriet Myers to withdraw her nomination to the Supreme Court. David Sirota She wasn’t pushed. She was borked, borked by the conservative legal movement and its advocacy groups. Speaker 2 The Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee said the groups drowned her and the president out. There was a decisive imbalance in the public forum with the case for Ms. Myers not heard because of the heavy decibel level against her. David Sirota This was an epic victory for the master planners, showcasing just how much power they had amassed since Lewis Powell’s memo all those years ago. The Los Angeles Times captured it perfectly with the headline, Right Stares Down White House and Wins.