Nominee Known for Working Hard Away From Spotlight
By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 3, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - Harriet Ellan Miers is described by those who know her as smart, tough and fair, with a legendary capacity for hard work but little tolerance for small talk.
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Harriet E. Miers: Career Timeline
"You can't be in a more favorable position in Harriet's life than to be her client," a longtime friend, Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, told Texas Lawyer magazine in 1996. "She really fights for her clients."
Her main client of late, President Bush, has described her fondly as "a pit bull in size 6 shoes." Some people in the White House circle have described her as one of the most powerful people in Washington whom most people have never heard of.
"She never seeks the limelight," Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told BusinessWeek in August. "She's just extremely devoted to the president."
As White House counsel, Ms. Miers, 60, was the ultimate gatekeeper for the president. Typically at her desk before dawn, she was often at work long after other staffers had gone home. Associates say not a single piece of paper made it to the president's desk without her approval.
Not that her duties were limited to minutiae. She was instrumental in choosing a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when the justice announced her intention to retire. "Her job was to turn everything upside down to see what might fall out," David G. Leitch, a former White House deputy counsel, told BusinessWeek.
Ms. Miers reportedly advised the president - correctly, as it turned out - that Judge John G. Roberts Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would be less vulnerable to criticism than more conservative jurists.
Whether Ms. Miers ever dreamed that she herself would be picked for the Supreme Court, after the president renominated Judge Roberts to succeed Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, may never be known, because she is widely known as discreet to the point of shyness.
Ms. Miers's comments about herself are consistently bland and the opposite of revealing. Asked one time whether she considered herself tough à la Mr. Bush's "pit bull" description, she replied, "I have been so characterized by others."
Asked what it was like to be the first woman to be elected president of the Texas Bar Association, in 1985, she replied, "It was a very vigorous campaign against a lawyer from Houston."
And when she was asked why she was stepping down from the Dallas City Council after a single term in the late 1980's, she said, "It was a natural progression."
The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, disputed any suggestion today that Ms. Miers was a "stealth nominee," meaning one lacking a paper trail of opinions, as a sitting judge would create. Mr. McClellan said Ms. Miers's history was one of "a very distinguished career and a long record of accomplishment."
But Steve Wolens, a Dallas lawyer and former Democratic state representative, said today that people trying to find Ms. Miers's views on abortion and other controversial issues may have a hard time, because she is not one to discuss her views publicly. "I didn't necessarily mean the Democrats, because there is no paper record for the social right to look at either," Mr. Wolens said.
In 1992, as head of the Texas bar, Ms. Miers opposed the endorsement by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates of the right to choose abortion. Carol E. Dinkins, a friend and fellow Texas lawyer, said Ms. Miers thought it improper for lawyers to take public stands on social issues.
A native of Dallas, Ms. Miers is single and described by friends as a devout church-goer. While no back-slapper, she did take part in law firm softball games. She is known to enjoy music, running, playing tennis and watching football.
In 1972, she became the first woman hired at the Dallas firm of Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neely. She became a top litigator, with clients that included Microsoft and the Walt Disney Company. Judges and fellow lawyers describe her as cool, tenacious and always well prepared.
But never flamboyant, in deed or word, as demonstrated by this observation: "Lawyers by nature are involved in controversy. We expect difficult issues and are prepared to deal with them."
Harriet Miers earned a bachelor of science and a law degree from Southern Methodist University. She got to know George Bush when he was governor of Texas, and Mr. Bush gave her the job of cleaning up the Texas Lottery Commission, which was riven by a nepotism scandal.
"She managed that masterfully," W. James Jonas, a Texas lawyer who represented companies before the commission, said in an interview.
But not bloodlessly. "I learned from Harriet that someone can be stone cold and at the same time act like they care," said Charles Soechting, the lawyer for the lottery director whom Ms. Miers helped to fire.
But colorful or not, Ms. Miers seems to have many more admirers than detractors. John Attanasio, dean of Southern Methodist's Dedman School of Law in Dallas, said she could have become president of the American Bar Association had she not devoted herself to the White House.
"It's stereotype, but I think she is really a very selfless person," he said. "I don't think she is someone who seeks the limelight. She doesn't seek recognition."
But now she is about to take part in a very public process, her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I look forward to it eagerly," she said today while visiting Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who heads the panel.
Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting from New York for this article. |
