Poor Harriet Miers

Poor Harriet Miers. So well-mannered, so ill-used. She is on her way out as White House counsel, and her thank-you notes to the boss may be better remembered than her lawyering. History will certainly not record that the president's one-time nominee to the Supreme Court stinted on the exclamation points: "Texas has a very popular governor and first lady!" she wrote, in one of the many fan letters she sent George W. Bush in the years since he named her to the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995.

In an early example of the genre, on file in the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and published by the New York Times last year, she thanked him "for taking the time to visit in the office and on the plane back - cool!" This was a recurring theme from Miers, a corporate lawyer in Dallas who later became Mr. Bush's personal attorney. "Hopefully,'' she said in another note, "Jenna and Barbara recognize that their parents are 'cool' - as do the rest of us." Job seekers everywhere stand in awe.

Back when the president only needed someone to, you know, uphold and interpret the U.S. Constitution, he insisted that she was the best possible gal for the job. But now that he needs someone who can defend him and his team in all the investigations that may be coming up now that the Democrats control Congress, he needs a really good lawyer. (Not cool!!!)

As the Washington Post reported today, "Republican advisers have been telling the White House to be ready for war, and many cited Miers as the wrong general. "The White House knew they needed to get a tough street fighter - that's what this is about,'' said one such adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve access to the White House.