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John Hawkins of Right Wing News has polled right-of-center bloggers on the Harriet Miers Nomination. Would encourage you to check out the results, but for those of you that are too lazy I\’ll summarize as follows :

About half of conservative bloggers feel it was a bad decision, and they view Bush less favorably as a result. It\’s fairly split on whether Bush should withdraw his nomination, although a slight majority favor his continued support of Miers. But it\’s an dead-even split on whether the Senate should reject the nomination or not.

Now this is significant in that it\’s not just a few loud mouths who are pissed. It\’s a fairly large percentage. Although I\’ll admit this is only a poll of bloggers, not the general public. But it\’s worth noting that bloggers have already made their presence known on a wide range of issues and events.

Now while this is all interesting, and no slam on John Hawkins, I really would have preferred had he taken this poll one step further.

I want to know how a confirmation of Miers would affect their continued support for the GOP. Because really this is all academic until you can come up with an end result. Cause ==> Effect, if you will.

Half of them aren\’t happy with the pick. A third want the nomination shot down at some level. How many would withdraw their support of the GOP in the event of a confirmation??

What if for instance 10% of the base was so turned off by a confirmation of Miers that they withdrew support. We\’re not just talking about funds lost. We\’re not just talking about volunteer hours disappearing. I\’m talking about votes. Say 10% of the base decided either they weren\’t going to vote in 2006 or 2008, or worse would vote in protest.

Now granted, depending on your area, that only translates into a few percentage points of the overall electorate. But how many races have been decided by a few percentage points these last few years??? 2000 and 2004 come to mind??

It\’s clear that the Miers outrage isn\’t an minor outburst by a few vocal individuals. It\’s becoming a movement all it\’s own. Denying it doesn\’t make it go away. And worse, it ignores the possibility of how serious the consequences may be for the future of the GOP.

You ask us doubters to consider trust Bush. \”Wait and see\”, you say. My point is that in the meantime, this nomination may have dealt the GOP a fatal wound from which it will not soon recover.