Infighting reviewed

Hugh writes a great post this morning about the bickering amongst conservatives that has bubbled-over in the discussion of the Miers nomination. He includes this great little bit from Kaus files:

Conservatives, a D.C. Republican friend tells me, wanted a fight over the O'Connor seat for its own sake--and not just for tacky fundraising and self-promotional reasons. They think they represent the majority position on judging; they needed a confrontation to draw the line and prove it. Plus a confirmation battle would be "consciousness-raising," as we used to say on the left, serving (in theory) to actually increase their ranks.

One reason the Miers nomination is in trouble on the right, then, is that it denies conservatives this instructive battle. It follows that a perverse-yet-promising strategy for Bush might be to give the 'wingers what they want. Have Miers make some unnecessarily provocative right-wing noises during her testimony that gratuitously outrage liberals. A noisy confrontation would ensue. Then the liberals would be happy (they'd have something to say) and conservatives would be happy (they'd achieve their educational purposes).

The money-quote: Let's be more specific. Conservatives, me included, want Ralph Neas, Nan Aron and the radical Democrats in the Senate humbled. They want the Democratic Party split over its remaining center-left Democrats and its left-fringe Democrats. Some of us want the courts to return to their proper role and remove themselves from the social engineering best displayed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court's declaration of imposition on the subject of same sex marriage, and SCOTUS' pronouncement that all the state legislatures in all of the states could never find a 17 year, 364 day old cop and child killer suitable for the death penalty.

In short, we have to win this battle, or all of the other battles --including the GWOT-- become imperiled if not lost.

Is he right? I don't know, but I think this and the rest of his comments bear some thinking on.

UPDATE: Major Mike at My Sandmen gives us the MOOSEMUSS summary on the Miers nomination. Again, don't know if he's got it all and got it right, but it bears examination.