The wheels come off, and National Review's Byron York is forced to watch:

Strategists working with the White House in support of the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers are becoming increasingly demoralized and pessimistic about the nomination's prospects on Capitol Hill in the wake of Miers's meetings with several Republican and Democratic senators....

"It's been a gradual descent into almost silence," says a ... source.... "The meetings with the senators are going terribly. On a scale of one to 100, they are in negative territory. The thought now is that they have to end....Obviously the smart thing to do would be to withdraw the nomination and have a do-over as soon as possible. But the White House is so irrational that who knows? As of this morning, there is a sort of pig-headed resolve to press forward, cancel the meetings with senators if necessary, and bone up for the hearings."...

I keep thinking that this is like the moment in Spinal Tap when, after a succession of screw-ups, Ian Faith is replaced as manager by David St. Hubbins's girlfriend, Jeanine Pettitbone, and things go from bad to worse. In this case, the Jeanine -- the person who takes on big responsibilities despite having no idea how to go about the job -- is Bush himself. I think he's now running the show, either because Rove and Cheney are preoccupied or because his head has swollen to the size of a house. "The White House is so irrational"? "Pig-headed resolve"? Sure sounds like Bush to me.