October (Web-only) 2005

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

In supporting President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, James Dobson told listeners last week, "When you know some of the things that I know that I probably shouldn't know—that would take me in this direction—you would understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice."

Since then, commentators and analysts have speculated on what Dobson learned in a conversation with White House advisor Karl Rove and other conservative Christian leaders. Turns out, he knew nothing that news reports didn't turn up within days following the Miers nomination.

"I did say to these pro-family leaders, which has been widely quoted, that Karl had told me something that I probably shouldn't know. And you know, it really wasn't all that tantalizing, but I still couldn't talk about it," Dobson said on his radio program today (audio | transcript). He said he had learned that Miers was on the short list of names the President was considering but wasn't free to discuss it because the nomination had not been released. Dobson also said other conservatives who were on the list asked to be removed because the nomination process "has become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter that they didn't want to subject themselves or the members of their families to it."

Dobson also said Rove told him and others that Miers is an evangelical, attends a conservative, pro-life church, and is a member of Texas Right to Life. "In other words, there is a characterization of her that was given to me before the President had actually made this decision. I could not talk about that on Monday. … But by Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, all this information began to come out, and ...