Why do some Party members reject Bush’s nomination? [br] [originaltext] Pre

President Bush is defending his choice of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to be the next Supreme Court justice.
     Her nomination this past week was criticized by some in the president’s Republican Party, who question the former-Democratic lawyer’s conservative credentials.
     Ms. Miers has never been a judge, and has spent most of her career in corporate litigation. She does not have a wide collection of legal opinions on Constitutional issues indicating where she stands on politically-divisive social topics, including abortion.
      In his weekly radio address, President Bush tried to reassure conservatives that Ms. Miers understands the restrained and modest role of judges to interpret laws as written, not as he or she might wish they were written.
     "I chose Harriet Miers for the Court both because of her accomplishments, and because I know her character and her judicial philosophy," said President Bush. "Harriet Miers will be the type of judge I said I would nominate: a good conservative judge. She shares my belief that judges should strictly interpret the Constitution and laws, not legislate from the bench."
     President Bush says her work as White House counsel has involved complex matters of constitutional law, serving as the chief legal advisor during regular meetings of the National Security Council and handling sensitive issues of relations between the White House and Congress.