I have answered the White House’s call for energy conservation…by conserving my energy and laying off the Harriet Miers nomination for a brief spell.

In the meantime, read Ed Morrissey’s excellent piece in the Washington Post about the rift on the right. Ed has additional thoughts and a round-up of reax to his piece here.

Patterico points to Miers’ support for government gender preferences. Stephen Bainbridge explains why fighting the Miers nomination is worth it (keep scrolling for more).

My friends at Power Line are Miers-blogging up a storm:

John Hinderaker argues: “I’ve always thought it might be salutary to have a non-lawyer or two on the Court. God knows we have plenty of businessmen, scientists, historians, housewives and others who are perfectly competent to read and understand the Constitution or a federal statute. And I think it would be fun to have such a person say, just once, as the Justices are deliberating: “Where does it say that?”"

Paul Mirengoff writes that his “Daily Standard column will argue that, disappointment notwithstanding, conservative Senators should be prepared to vote in favor of Miers.”

Scott Johnson is dead-on about the White House’s failure to anticipate the reaction:

President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has performed the difficult task of dividing his most respectful supporters, among whom I count myself. The division is apparent in the email messages we’ve received in response to our relatively mild comments on Harriet Miers; it is also apparent elsewhere on the Internet. Those who have written to express hostility to us for our comments are long on invective and short on facts. The fact that this division appears to have been unanticipated by the White House is not impressive.

Among those divided: the Bay household.

The indefatigable Hugh Hewitt has a lengthy and thoughtful response to Miers critics prompted by Ed Morrissey’s WaPo piece. Read the whole thing. I know I said I was conserving energy, but I’ll make one observation:

I think that Hugh, like many of the Bush White House aides and supporters who are wielding the elitism card, seriously misreads and underestimates the opposition to this nomination coming from grass-roots conservatives. And that includes evangelicals. These are not elites.

Chuck Muth, another non-elite, weighs in here.

Right Side Redux charts the Miers debate.

More non-elite commentary:

John in Carolina: It’s getting worse for Miers

Paul Deignan on Miers and abortion: Birds of a feather

Jeff Kouba answers Hugh Hewitt’s question.

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