Bush defends conservative lawyer as qualified for top court job

IN THE face of criticism from the left and right, US President George W Bush insisted yesterday that Harriet Miers is the best-qualified candidate for the Supreme Court and assured sceptical conservatives that his lawyer-turned-nominee shares his judicial philosophy — and won’t stray from a rightward course.

"I've known her long enough to know she's not going to change, that 20 years from now she will be the same person with the same judicial philosophy she has today," Mr Bush said. "She'll have more experience. She'll have been a judge, but nevertheless the philosophy won't change, and that's important to me."

Dismissing Democratic charges of cronyism, Mr Bush said: "I picked the best person I could find. People know we're close."

Mr Bush has known Ms Miers for more than 10 years, first as his personal lawyer and most recently as a White House counsel.

Mr Bush called the news conference, his first since May, as he struggles to regain political strength sapped by a confluence of events high gas prices, a rising death toll in Iraq and a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. His job approval rating, near the lowest point of his presidency, faces another test with the nomination of Ms Miers.

In a wide-ranging news conference Mr Bush said he was considering whether the US military should be used to help quarantine part of the country in the event of a pandemic of Avian bird flu. "I'm not predicting an outbreak," he said. "I'm just suggesting to you that we need to be thinking about it."

The president refused to comment on an issue looming over the White House the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity. With two top White House officials a focus of the inquiry, Mr Bush was asked whether he would fire anybody indicted in the probe. "I'm not going to talk about the investigation until it's complete," he said.

On Katrina, Mr Bush said he would work with Congress to "make real cuts" in non-security spending to help in rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

"The private sector will be the engine that drives the recovery of the Gulf Coast," he said.

But he said the nation will continue to spend whatever it takes to support US troops in Iraq.

Mr Bush claimed progress on training Iraqi forces to take over the security of their country a key measure for when US troops can begin coming home despite last week's statement from the top US commander there that only one Iraqi battalion, down from three, is ready to fight without US help.

He said that more than 80 Iraqi army battalions are fighting alongside US troops, and that 30 Iraqi battalions are capable of taking the lead in combat.

Mr Bush's choice of Ms Miers dominated the news conference, with Mr Bush struggling to please his political base without giving Democrats ammunition to block her confirmation.

Some of Mr Bush's own supports are expressing dismay that he chose a White House lawyer with no judicial experience over several well-documented conservative jurists.