According to Jim Geraghty:
Jonah, John,
Hey – regarding your Corner postings on whether other candidates may have dropped out… As you said, some predicted the fight over a second nominee would be nastier and more personal than the Roberts fight. A couple of other points in the same vein:
* Recall the report that the NY Times was digging into Roberts’ kids.
* Recall the fashion assessment that the Washington Post ran on Roberts’ wife.
* Recall that NARAL went after Roberts with a charge that flat-out wasn’t true.
* You have heard that liberal bloggers speculating now that Miers is a lesbian, entirely based on the fact that she’s not married. I don’t know if similar stuff was going on about Roberts, but any nominee knew the Kos-to-Media-Matters-to-The Nation-to-Frank-Rich’s-and-Dowd’s-column express would trumpet any nasty rumors or lies.
A scenario that I’m finding plausible is that the Bush White House definately wanted a woman, and Miers was maybe number three on their list; one and two backed out after deciding they didn’t need to be Borked or Clarence Thomas-ized (“Judge, did you ever rent a pornographic video?”). Today, as opposed to during the days of Thomas, it isn’t just the nominee who gets slimed and trashed; it’s their family, too. I could easily see more than one judge saying, “to hell with that; I’m happy in the judgeship I have, and I’m not putting my family through that.”
Best,
Jim