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Andy Card: Bush Wanted Woman on High Court Ronald Kessler, NewsMax.com This is part one of a three-part series on Ronald Kessler's exclusive interview with Andy Card, President Bush's former chief of staff. It is Mr. Card's first extensive interview since leaving office. Get Ron Kessler's future stories via email - Click Here Now.
President Bush selected Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court after a search for other possible female candidates outside the White House began to lag, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. "Andy" Card, Jr. said in his first extensive interview since leaving the White House.
"The president was criticized for not nominating a woman when he nominated John Roberts," Card said, as he petted Sophie, his Wheaton Terrier, in the living room of his home in northern Virginia. "And then when William Rehnquist left, you know, ‘What do you mean you're not going to nominate a woman? You've had two opportunities, and you haven't nominated a woman.' And so he was looking to nominate a woman — not blindly, not any woman, not just to nominate a woman." As the search committee kept suggesting female candidates who did not seem right, Bush pushed for more selections.
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Outside the Box Nomination "Go back and find more, go back and find more women," Card quoted the president as saying. "We worked very, very hard, and a lot of the names that kept floating up were all white males. ‘No, keep going, going, going.' "And it was someone who was not involved in the search process who was extremely complimentary of Harriet Miers who suggested that she should be considered. This was an external person. That caused us to say, are we being foolish to not look at her? Those conversations were conveyed to the president, and over the course of about a week he gave a lot of thought to it." Card said the subsequent criticism of Miers for not having a conservative judicial philosophy "ticked him off." Bush ultimately withdrew her nomination and named Samuel Alito to the high court. "If anyone understands the president's philosophical expectations, it's Harriet Miers," Card said. "She was not going to do a bait and switch on the president. I think she is grounded as a conservative, she is grounded in faith, and she's got a moral compass that is directing her well. Her diligence would match the diligence of any of the other justices."
But in retrospect, he said, "I think because of the desire for secrecy, the circle of people asked for their opinion was probably too small and too tight. That did not serve Harriet well and it did not serve the president well in the process coming up to her nomination, in my opinion."
Card said he and the White House could have done a better job of "establishing a foundation of credibility for Harriet." That would have included introducing her to key people and groups long before Bush nominated her. Card said he first dealt with Miers, named in 1997 by the National Law Journal as one of the Hundred Most Influential Lawyers in America, during the negotiations over ground rules for the 2000 presidential debates. Impressive, Trusted "It wasn't what Harriet said in the public domain, it was how she listened and showed resolve and had phenomenally good judgment that impressed me," Card said. "And it was always quiet. She didn't have to take her shoes off and pound the table or anything else. That's when I said, ‘Wow, I'm very impressed with this woman.' And I came to really trust her to not allow bias to move the train. She knew how to be objective and to take the emotion down, and then consider and understand the ramifications, weigh it this way, weigh it that way, come at it from a different perspective." When Bush made Card chief of staff, "I organized a White House staff for the president to look at, the flow chart and everything else," Card said. "It had no names on it. It was just boxes and line diagrams. He asked, ‘Who would you put there? Who would you put there?' And one of the first individuals that I said that I wanted to make sure came in, I hoped, was Harriet Miers." Miers was then co-managing partner of Locke, Liddell & Sapp in Dallas, a firm of 425 lawyers. Her clients included Microsoft and Disney. She represented Bush's campaign committee, his transition committee, and his first inaugural committee. Occasionally, she did legal work for Bush personally. Bush said, "I can't imagine she'd do it. She's a successful lawyer down here in Texas. Why would she do that?" "Well, first of all, I think she has a sense of wanting to make contributions," Card replied. "She wants to serve you, but she'd be very good. She would be mature, calm, sensible, objective and diligent, and smart." "Well, ask her," Bush said. "I can't imagine she'll do it." Invisible to the Media's Radar In a White House known for secrecy and modesty, Miers kept a lower profile than anyone else. Her friend Margaret Spellings, then domestic policy adviser in the White House and now education secretary, told me that Miers "doesn't want to be in the paper. She's all about the president. Will people think she is important and in the know for her next gig? I can tell you she is and she is." "Obviously, I'm a passionate Harriet Miers fan," Card said. "But she was not a media star, and she probably wasn't going to be the person to attract all of the attention at a cocktail party or light up a room." Card spoke of his White House days after having returned from his summer place in Maine. Card's only previous interviews since leaving the White House were brief ones with John King of CNN on July 7 and with The State, a Columbia, South Carolina paper, which ran a few comments from him after a reporter talked with him on June 16 outside a banquet hall. The longest-serving White House chief of staff besides President Eisenhower's Sherman Adams, Card said his resignation arose after he had been thinking for some time that "the president needed something that would allow external observers to see that he had new momentum." Card said he already had a lot of changes in the works, but nobody would have seen them as change. Giving the President Momentum "So it was time for new personalities to help give definition to the word change," Card said. "I first went to the president more than a month and a half before I left. I said, ‘You know, I think it's probably time to think about it.'" "Nah!" the president replied at Camp David. "I'm not going to do anything." Card suggested he give it some thought. "We talked a handful of other times about it, and finally it was the right time," Card said. He left on April 14. "I decided when I left, I would really leave rather than try to straddle the fence," he said. "So the first week I was gone, I literally didn't read a newspaper, or watch the network news, or turn on Fox or CNN. And I found the withdrawal from the information to be pretty hard. Then the next week I kind of collected the phone calls that had come in and started to return them. The third week I started setting up appointments to meet with speakers' bureau types, and then I interviewed I think seven speakers' bureaus, met with a lawyer, and got a lawyer, and all that kind of stuff." Card said he has signed on with the Washington Speakers Bureau and is planning to do a book but is in no rush. As a supportive spouse, he wants to become more involved in the activities of his wife, the Rev. Kathleene Card, as a United Methodist minister. He has no plans to run for office. Since leaving the White House, Card has seen the president about 10 times, including two goodbye parties, two biking excursions in Beltsville, Md., and a weekend visit at Camp David with the first lady and Card's wife. Bush also calls from time to time to chat. As he has in the past, the president invited Card to his birthday party on July 4. The Cards' grandchildren were visiting them in Maine, and they decided not to interrupt their vacation. Editor's Note: Get Ron Kessler's future stories via email -- Click Here Now.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Harriet Miers Supreme Court Nomination
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