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President Bush seemed caught off guard by the political earthquake that began building among his own conservative supporters immediately after the announcement that White House Counsel Harriet Miers was the president's latest nominee for the United States Supreme Court. By week's end, the White House spin machine was in high gear, with Mr. Bush himself using his weekly radio broadcast to sell the Miers nomination to the country.

Meanwhile, conservative activists, feeling betrayed and remembering all too clearly the disappointments of previous court appointments by Republican presidents, were having none of it.

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol announced that he was "depressed, disappointed and demoralized" by the nomination.

Pat Buchanan, a stalwart veteran of the conservative political movement, was livid, saying that "the White House has ducked the fight" and that the president "has retreated from Reaganism into the old politics of compromise and consensus."

Columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote, "If Harriet Miers were not a crony of the president of the United States, her nomination to the Supreme Court would be a joke, as it would have occurred to no one else to nominate her."

George Will suggested that unless the senate rejects the Miers nomination, future presidents would reduce the Supreme Court to "a private plaything for fulfilling whims on behalf of friends."

Robert Bork called the Miers appointment "a disaster on every level."

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-KS, emerged from a meeting with Miers and announced that he was unimpressed and could easily see himself voting against her confirmation. Meanwhile, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-MS, stated, "There are a lot more people -- men, women and minorities -- that are more qualified, in my opinion, by their experiences than she is."

In the last five years, I have disagreed with this president on a number of issues: his gleeful spending of trillions of my tax dollars; his willingness to allow the likes of Ted Kennedy to write federal education policy; and especially his refusal to control our borders.

But as to judicial appointments, this president has not disappointed his conservative base. Initial indications are that his first Supreme Court pick, Chief Justice John Roberts, is an outstanding one. And some of his appellate court appointments have sent liberals into apoplexy (a reaction I personally always enjoy).

With so many of my fellow conservatives expressing legitimate concern about this nomination, let me point out the political reality that the outright defeat of this nomination, as some are now advocating, is not likely. But based on Harriet Miers' record, the president's critics are correct to point out that we have very little evidence to indicate how this woman might interpret the U.S. Constitution once she is seated on the Supreme Court.

What is a conservative activist to do? I have a modest proposal.

Why not let her prove herself over the next year and a half? A kind of trial run, or probationary period, if you will. Accordingly, the Senate could simply table the Miers nomination and head home in November for their holiday recess. Given the president's penchant for loyalty and tenacity, I believe his response would be the same as it was when the Senate failed to act on his nomination of John Bolton to become American Ambassador to the United Nations. He would name Harriet Miers as a recess appointment in order to prove to the senate and the country that she is everything he says she is.

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