Where's the loyalty?!

I'm running out of nice things to say about President Bush. Not that I ever had a lot of them. After having my nose to the grindstone until 8:00 tonight, I checked cnn.com and found that the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court had been withdrawn. I'm not yet sure how I feel about this with regard to the next appointment to The Court, but it does make me lose even more respect for the President.

I don't believe for a second that Ms. Miers wasn't prompted to withdraw her nomination. Especially since I read an editorial predicting the withdrawal for the reason of conflicts with executive privilege, which was exactly the proffered excuse. I think, though, that the President and his (un-nominated) cronies saw the writing on the wall, couldn't engage much less lose another battle, and cut her loose.

What bothers me about this is that one of the few things I did respect about President Bush was his loyalty. It's an ort from my upbringing in the Mid-West. For example, I admit that there have been many times I have wanted to see Secretary Rumsfeld fired, but I did respect the President for keeping him. When you have the final say, you have the final responsibility -- you don't blame others for decisions that are ultimately yours. (This is something I struggle, mightily at times, to get across at work.)

So to see him leave his counsel and confidante hanging in the wind was sad. The last time an about face bothered me so much was in the 2000 election, when five previously federalist Supreme Court Justices decided to interfere with the manner in which Florida cast its electoral votes.

I wish Gore had won, but sometimes, I'd settle for a little Republican consistency.