Bush Defends Supreme Court Pick

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) sought to dispel doubts about Miers's political leanings and vowed to support her confirmation. "A lot of my fellow conservatives are concerned, but they don't know her as I do," said Hatch, who had extensive dealings with Miers when he was Judiciary Committee chairman.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) also sounded upbeat. "I am enthusiastic about this nomination," he said after meeting with Miers. "I know the president believes in Ms. Miers strongly, and I value his judgment."

Miers already is benefiting from one prominent Democratic voice. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) had privately suggested to Bush that he consider her and reiterated his enthusiasm during a Senate floor speech yesterday. "I will say that I am very impressed by what I know about Harriet Miers," he said.

But he said his positive assessment to Bush did not guarantee his vote: "I am grateful that the president took account of my views. But let me make clear that I have not endorsed this nomination."

Other Democrats who have bristled at Reid's collaborative approach signaled that they wanted to subject Miers's record to tough scrutiny and called for the White House to release documents related to her service over the past five years. Bush made it clear he had no intention of handing over such papers, deeming it an infringement of executive privilege.

Bush's defense of Miers in the Rose Garden at times echoed memorable moments during his father's presidency. When George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, liberals ridiculed him for asserting that Thomas was the most qualified candidate. The current president did not shy away from making a similar assertion when asked if Miers, out of all the people in the country, is "the most qualified" choice.

"Yes," he answered. "Otherwise I wouldn't have put her on."

And just as Thomas told the Senate that he never voiced a position on Roe even privately, Bush said he never talked about the topic with Miers. "Not to my recollection have I ever sat down with her" to talk about abortion, he said.

But Bush seemed to be taking lessons from his father's other Supreme Court nomination, that of Souter, the "stealth candidate" to whom many conservatives were comparing Miers yesterday. The president laughed off a question about whether he, too, thinks the nomination of Souter was a mistake.

"You're trying to get me in trouble with my father," he said. "Call him." (The former president's office had no comment.)

But Bush said he could vouch that Miers will not move to the left over time, an implicit reference to Souter. "I don't want to put somebody on the bench who is this way today and changes," he said. "That's not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in finding somebody who shares my philosophy today and will have that same philosophy 20 years from now."

On another topic worrying conservatives, Bush promised to seek spending cuts to offset some of the Katrina recovery program and targeted entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The president proposed $69 billion in savings over five years from those programs in his budget earlier this year, but Congress accepted just $35 billion in cuts. Bush called on lawmakers to return to his original plan. "The heart of America is big enough to be generous and responsible at the same time," he said.

Bush pitched for other priorities, including renewal of the USA Patriot Act, which empowers government agencies in pursuing suspected terrorists, and legislation to encourage construction of oil refineries in response to high gasoline prices. He said he is looking for a new Federal Reserve chairman who would be "an independent person from politics" and he said he is "sure the Congress will look" into whether Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles lied under oath about steroid use.

Still, Bush agreed that his proposal to restructure Social Security, once the signature initiative of his second term, has gone nowhere. "There seems to be a diminished appetite in the short term," he said, "but I'm going to remind people that there is a long-term issue that we must solve."