The Judy Chronicles

"Right-wing bloggers, meanwhile, have not been shy about voicing their displeasure. 'With all due respect, perhaps Mrs. Bush should stick to telling horse jokes,' snipped Michelle Malkin."

Peggy Noonan is plotting an exit strategy for W:

" The full Tim McCarthy . He was the Secret Service agent who stood like Stonewall and took the bullet for Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton. Harriet Miers can withdraw her name, take the hit, and let the president's protectors throw him in the car. Her toughness and professionalism would appear wholly admirable. She'd not just survive; she'd flourish, going from much-spoofed office wife to world-famous lawyer and world-class friend. Added side benefit: Her nobility makes her attackers look bad . . .

"An essential White House mistake--really a key and historic one--was in turning on its critics with such idiotic ferocity. 'My way or the highway' is getting old. 'Please listen to us and try to see it our way or we'll have to kill you,' is getting old. Sending Laura Bush out to make her first mistake as first lady, agreeing with Matt Lauer that sexism is probably part of the reason for opposition to Ms. Miers, was embarrassingly inept and only served to dim some of the power of this extraordinary resource."

If you really want to keep up with the Kurtz archive, here's my weekend piece on Scott McClellan's increasingly tough sparring with reporters.

Now, as previously promised, today's print column:

Some of the biggest names in conservative punditry have been eviscerating President Bush over the Harriet Miers nomination. But no one has attracted quite as much attention as David Frum .

It's not just that the National Review contributor and American Enterprise Institute fellow was online with stinging criticism of Bush two hours after the president announced Miers as his Supreme Court nominee. It's not just that Frum has been blogging up a storm and hitting the television and radio circuit. It's that the Canadian-born journalist is a former Bush speechwriter.

"I think it was courageous," says Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. "He knew that there would be a little suspicion, however unfounded, of personal animosity." Still, says Kristol, "because he worked there four years ago, he's not supposed to express an opinion?"

Frum, who is said by friends to be the target of fierce resentment by administration officials, was reluctant to be interviewed and uncomfortable with being portrayed as Miers's most vocal critic.

"For me, there has not been a moment when I have not just felt ill about this whole thing," he says. "My personal hope is that it gets resolved as quickly and quietly as possible with a minimum amount of harm to the administration" -- through a Miers withdrawal.

The fratricidal battle, as Frum describes it, goes to the heart of a conservative media establishment that, to outsiders at least, has long seemed to operate with enormous message discipline. But the new dissension raises a host of questions: Does the White House see journalists on the right as being on the team, and punish transgressors by limiting access? Do conservative media folks have a responsibility to challenge Bush when he deviates from their principles -- and if so, why haven't they done it until now? Are former administration officials expected to abide by an unspoken loyalty oath, and how long does it last?