After the Home Run, a White House Balk?

Veteran aides said they also could not understand why White House officials who vetted Miers did not discover the two lapsed law licenses and divulge them simultaneously, making them a one-day story. Nor could they explain why administration lawyers allowed Miers to answer a question about constitutional law in which she appeared to confuse the issues of "proportional representation" of minorities on elected boards with one-man, one-vote rules guiding legislative redistricting.

"I think she got confused," said Turley, one of several law professors who said Miers misstated the Equal Protection Clause in her answer. "It's very surprising."

A lawyer for a conservative group that backed the Roberts nomination but has grumbled about the Miers nomination was equally puzzled. "I'm guessing they wanted to say she didn't get any help" with the questionnaire, the lawyer said.

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter who strongly opposes the Miers nomination, said Roberts was so thoroughly versed in constitutional law -- and so at ease chatting with senators without revealing too much of his thinking -- that it did not matter if he received light vetting or minimal coaching from the White House. "When you make a good choice, nobody knows or cares how bad a vetting job you did," Frum said in an interview.

Frum said he did not know details of the White House's look into Miers's background but added, "to have someone vetted by her deputy" is an invitation to overlook possible problems. Miers told the Judiciary Committee she conferred with her deputy, William Kelley, along with White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., Bush and Laura Bush about her possible appointment to the Supreme Court.

Charles R. Black, a Republican lobbyist with close White House ties, said one problem with the nomination is that Miers is unable to push it as a behind-the-scenes facilitator, as she did for Roberts. "Everybody said she was really helpful" in getting the chief justice confirmed, Black said.

"The expectation from the White House and their friends like me is that she will probably do a very good job at the hearing and probably be confirmed," he said.

Some committee members are not so sure. "It's going to be tough for her, and anything that appears to be a mistake, you know, is not good," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said this week. A Democratic committee member, Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) said yesterday: "This is an uphill road all the way."

Staff writer Peter Baker contributed to this report.