Try to see it our way, or we'll have to kill you

Meet the Washington, D.C. version of "The Sopranos": the Bush White House tries to behave like a gang of mob enforcers. Not satisfied with those Republicans who are still reluctant to toe the line on the Harriet Miers nomination, the White House is now threatening to use brass knuckles.

The New Hampshire Union-Leader has the story.

The White House political arm is taking a special interest in U.S. senators who are potential 2008 Presidential candidates, especially when they come to New Hampshire. The goal is to put them on the record on the Harriet Miers nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is under fire from the right and left.

Bush administration political director Sarah Taylor has been making calls into the state to advise local activists working on behalf of the nomination with the Washington-based Progress for America organization.

"They are obviously well aware of our special role in the political process," said political strategist Jack Heath.

As part of the coordinated effort, activists Tuesday night approached Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., at St. Anselm College with a letter saying that Miers is qualified, deserves "fair treatment" and a filibuster-free up-or-down confirmation vote.

It was signed by Republican National Committeeman Tom Rath, Cornerstone Policy Research head Karen Testerman, Ed Naile, chairman of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, and GOP activist Susan Duprey, president of the Devine Millimet law firm.

Starting Saturday, when Republican Virginia Sen. George Allen visits the state, the group will not only give Presidential candidates the letter, but also ask them to sign a pledge to support fair treatment of the Miers nomination.

Heath says Democratic senators will also be approached. That would include Delaware's Joe Biden, who may campaign for Manchester Mayor Robert Baines before the end of the month.

The more the White House tries to spin this nomination, the worse things get. According to Tom Oliphant, writing in today's Boston Globe, "The original White House sales job was that the Miers choice was a welcome selection of a distinguished Texas lawyer whose gender only enhanced her status. That sales job was ineffective in avoiding a sudden explosion of conservative displeasure that Bush chose someone with no roots in and no ties to a movement to fashion a new judicial philosophy that stretches back at least to Ronald Reagan's election in 1980."

Via Atrios, more on the fomenting Republican civil war.

Finally, yet another conservative pundit leaves the reservation. This time it's Peggy Noonan on OpinionJournal.com.

Can this marriage be saved? George W. Bush feels dissed and unappreciated: How could you not back me? Conservatives feel dissed and unappreciated: How could you attack me? Both sides are toe to toe. One senses that the critics will gain, as they've been gaining, and that the White House is on the losing side. If the administration had a compelling rationale for Harriet Miers's nomination, they would have made it. Simply going at their critics was not only destructive, it signaled an emptiness in their arsenal. If they had a case they'd have made it. "You're a sexist snob" isn't a case; it's an insult, one that manages in this case to be both startling and boring.

The Miers pick was a mistake. The best way to change the story is to change the story. Here's one way.

So what does Peggy recommend?

1) Harriet Miers should take a bullet for Bush - Like Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy, who took a bullet for President Reagan in 1980, Miers should do likewise: Harriet Miers can withdraw her name, take the hit, and let the president's protectors throw him in the car. She would survive and he could go on to name a better nominee that the conservative establishment would feel obligated to support.

2) The Dan Quayle Solution - When Bush 41 picked Quayle to be his running mate, Noonan says that Quayle should have said, "Thanks, but I'm not ready..." (Noonan believes that Quayle would be president now if he had--Heaven Forfend!) Barring that, Bush could appoint her to the federal appeals court, which would be an opportunity to prove what a wonderful judge she could be. If Ms. Miers did what Mr. Quayle didn't do--heck, she could wind up on the Supreme Court.

What will fix things, she says, is a Republican gathering to sing kumbayah and have a group hug because, "Much old affection remains, and respect lingers, but a lot of damage has been done. . . . No one wants George W. Bush turned into Jimmy Carter." (Ed.--Although Bush is looking a lot like Nixon these days.)

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.

As for Ed Gillespie and his famous charge of sexism and elitism, I don't think serious conservatives believe Ed is up nights pondering whiffs and emanations of class tension and gender bias in modern America. It was the ignorant verbal lurch of a K Street behemoth who has perhaps forgotten that conservatives are not merely a bloc, a part of the base, a group that must be handled, but individuals who are and have been in it for serious reasons, for the long haul, and often at considerable sacrifice. They don't deserve to be patronized by people they've long strained to defend.

The bottom line, she says, is the White House put the cart before the horse by not making the arguments for Harriet Miers first followed by the facts about her (such as her religion). Sounds like they should have stuck to the playbook they used for John Roberts.