Harriet Miers

I think when historians look back at the Administration of George W. Bush - this day (October 3rd) last year will be an important one.

Last year on this day President George W. Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to fill the seat that was held by Sandra Day O'Connor. The nominee was not widely applauded (in fact quite the opposite). The move by Bush is viewed as pure cronyism and the fact that Miers has no judicial experience makes it tough to refute that claim.

Other Presidents had nominated duds but what was significant about Miers is the fact that it opened up the doors to make it OK within the Republican party to disagree with the President not just on the nominee but on any policy stand. I think if you graphed the polls - you would see that Bush's well documented slide in the polls actually started after the Miers nomination.

The nomination of Miers hurt Bush with his base and I'm not sure if he's yet to recover.