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U.S. Supreme Court

Miers' mind a mystery - except toward Bush

What is known about the Supreme Court nominee? She's a stickler for accuracy and consistency. She's loyal to the president. And little else.

By BILL ADAIR
Published October 16, 2005

	[AP file photo]
	President Bush signs personnel forms with then-staff secretary Harriet Miers in the Oval Office shortly after he took office in 2001.

WASHINGTON - When Harriet Miers finished reviewing a draft speech for President Bush, she would send it back to the White House speechwriters with comments. She wrote questions in the margins in her meticulous cursive.

Sometimes she wanted them to check their facts. "Is this something we're sure we believe?" she would write. Or simply, "DPC?", shorthand for whether it had been cleared with the president's Domestic Policy Council.

Her most biting comment was when she occasionally wrote, "This doesn't sound presidential."

In the Bush White House, it was Miers' job to make sure the president sounded presidential. If the White House was a factory, churning out speeches and letters and policy papers, Miers was chief of quality control, a key player who made sure the products - and the CEO - looked good.

As staff secretary from 2001 to 2003, Miers checked Bush's letters for mistakes and made sure he could pronounce the names of people he met. She even controlled his signature, deciding which documents he signed by hand and which went to the Autopen machine.

The swirl of discontent over Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court has focused on how little we know about her. In response, Bush has essentially said, Trust me. I know her. Indeed, he knows her because she has devoted the last six years to him, working such long hours she has virtually no time for a personal life.

Yet if that relationship is the key to understanding why Miers belongs on the court, even those who have seen them working together cannot bring the portrait of Harriet Miers into better focus. They describe her as warm and competent, but don't know what she thinks about major issues.

Miers has given so much of herself to Bush that it's difficult to know where he ends and where she begins.

Miers met Bush in 1989 and she later joined his "kitchen cabinet," an informal group of supporters helping launch his 1994 campaign to be governor of Texas.

It was an opportune time for both. Bush needed someone with legal expertise to help the campaign. Miers, who had been running a Dallas law firm and served one term on the City Council, was ready for something new.

Karin Torgerson, a lawyer with Miers' firm, said her boss had topped out in the Texas city.

"There really weren't that many more hurdles for her to climb in the Dallas legal market," Torgerson said. Miers' volunteer legal work for Bush was "a new obstacle, something new to challenge her."

Miers' friend Margaret Spellings, also a member of the kitchen cabinet, said Miers became interested in government service.

"I think she knew there was more to life than billable hours," said Spellings, now Bush's education secretary.

Miers, now 60, took her duties seriously. The morning after the 1994 election, when campaign workers were still bleary-eyed from celebrating the surprise victory, she held a meeting to explain the ethics rules for the transition.

As governor, Bush grew to trust Miers and appointed her to clean up the troubled state lottery. Miers, in turn, became a loyal supporter. Documents released last week by the state archives include notes and cards from her that gushed with praise.

"You are the best!" she wrote in a letter thanking him for taking part in a lottery meeting. In a birthday card, she wrote "You are the best Governor ever - deserving of great respect!"

A thank-you note said, "All I hear is how great you and Laura are doing. The dinner here was great - especially the speech! Keep up all the great work. Texas is blessed!"

Bush valued her work. "I appreciate your friendship and candor," he said in a thank-you note for a birthday card. "Never hold back your sage advice."

When Bush became president, Miers became his staff secretary, one of toughest jobs at the White House.

In overseeing everything Bush said, wrote or read, she was with him morning, noon and night. Miers regularly visited him at the White House residence - rare for all but the most senior aides - and she accompanied him on most trips.

Miers was a workaholic, even on long flights on Air Force One. While other aides snoozed, she was in full motion, checking speeches, getting briefing books ready.

In 2003, she became deputy chief of staff for policy, where she was the link between Bush and his policy advisers. She became White House counsel in February, acting as Bush's chief legal adviser on everything from the Patriot Act to Supreme Court nominees. Instead of protecting Bush from the embarrassment of mispronounced names, she began protecting him from legal trouble.

David Frum, a former speechwriter who has been one of the sharpest critics of her nomination, said Miers was deeply devoted to Bush.

"In the White House that hero-worshiped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal," Frum wrote in his blog on National Review Online. "She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met."

In an interview last week, Frum characterized her as a loyal servant but not a big thinker.

"She was not somebody who cast a large shadow at the White House in terms of substantive achievement," he said. "She controlled the Autopen, she managed the paper flow, she was very precise and careful. But she was not somebody who played a role in the achievements and accomplishments of that White House."

Indeed, White House aides say Miers is more a listener than a talker. It is not uncommon for her to sit in a room full of people for a long meeting and never utter a word.

But friends and White House aides say that was her duty - to present Bush with all sides of an issue.

Brett Kavanaugh, the current staff secretary, said her role was to be "an honest broker" who did not take sides in presenting options to the president.

Spellings said Miers played that role well. "One of her strongest skills is to make sure that all points of view are considered."

As staff secretary, Miers was a stickler for accuracy. Names had to be spelled correctly, pronunciations had to be correct and, for goodness sakes, no typos.

She told her staff, "If he sees a typo in a memo, he questions the entire memo."

She was a master juggler, keeping track of items large and small. "She just had the brainpower to keep everything moving," said former White House aide Noel Francisco.

She sweated the big stuff, the little stuff and everything in between. She frequently asked, "Who signed off on this?"

She knew Bush's speaking style and made sure his speeches sounded genuine.

"The edits that really counted were the ones where she said, "This doesn't sound like the president,' " said former speechwriter Noam Neusner. Miers made sure Bush's speeches were written in the active voice, in the short, declarative sentences he prefers. She changed every We to I.

She caught lots of mistakes. If a draft referred to something as "our most urgent domestic priority," it was Miers who would remember that Bush had used the same phrase months earlier to describe something else.

"In big speeches, Harriet often found things that nobody else found - especially inconsistencies," said former speechwriter Matthew Scully. "Harriet didn't miss things."

And yet, after working with her day after day, these colleagues are at a loss to say where Miers stands on big issues. She rarely expressed opinions. She did a lot of I-dotting and T-crossing, but she was like a frowning Secret Service agent, standing guard in front of the president but revealing little about herself.

Frum said that in all the time he worked with her, she had an opinion on just one issue - that the American Bar Association should play a role in judicial nominations.

"I cannot recall having a substantive conversation with her," Frum said.

But friends and other White House aides say that was her job - and her style.

"She's not a grandstander or a showoff type at all," said Spellings. "She doesn't feel like she has to add her two cents."

Rena Pederson, a longtime friend and the former editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News, said Miers was content in a low-key role.

"I've often thought Harriet could write a really interesting book," said Pederson. "But she never will. She is so discrete and so loyal. That goes with the job description."

The White House has a strict ethic of anonymity. Everyone understands their role and nobody is supposed to be bigger than the president.

And yet, that is the very reason her nomination is under fire. She has been so anonymous that few people know who she is.

Said Neusner, "Harriet is the consummate Bush person - very diligent, very smart and loyal to the president. That doesn't necessarily make somebody well-known outside the White House."

Washington bureau chief Bill Adair can be reached at 202 463-0575 or adair@sptimes.com

Harriet Miers' career with George W. Bush

Legal adviser to Bush's gubernatorial campaign, early 1990s

General counsel for the gubernatorial transition team, 1994

Chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission, a voluntary public service position, 1995-2000

Assistant to the president/staff secretary, 2001-2003

Assistant to the president/deputy chief of staff for policy, 2003-2005.

Counsel to the president, since February 2005

[Last modified October 16, 2005, 01:33:15]