Documents Show Miers's Close Ties to Bush - New York Times

Documents Show Miers's Close Ties to Bush - New York TimesOctober 11, 2005
Documents Show Miers's Close Ties to Bush
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and SIMON ROMERO

AUSTIN, Tex., Oct. 10 - "You are the best governor ever - deserving of great respect," Harriet E. Miers wrote to George W. Bush days after his 51st birthday in July 1997. She also found him "cool," said he and his wife, Laura, were "the greatest!" and told him: "Keep up the great work. Texas is blessed."

Ms. Miers, President Bush's personal lawyer and his selection for a Supreme Court seat, emerges as an unabashed fan in more than 2,000 pages of official correspondence and personal notes made public on Monday by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in response to open-records requests.

Mr. Bush returned the admiration, the files show. After Ms. Miers's birthday wishes, he wrote thanks and a "happy 52nd to you." He added, "I appreciate your friendship and candor - never hold back your sage advice."

The documents, including many minutes of meetings of the Texas Lottery Commission, which Ms. Miers headed, shed little light on her legal thinking, but underscore her ties to Mr. Bush. Because of their closeness and her lack of a judicial record, some critics have dismissed Ms. Miers as a crony unworthy of nomination to the court but for her confidential service as the president's lawyer.

Others question whether their bond could undermine the separation of powers of the executive and judicial branches.

More than a year into Mr. Bush's first term as governor, Ms. Miers drew on their friendship by asking the Bushes to serve as "honorary chairs" at an Anti-Defamation League dinner in 1996 honoring Ms. Miers with the Jurisprudence Award for devotion to constitutional principles and democratic values.

Mr. and Ms. Bush agreed, and the governor delivered one of the two keynote tributes, saying: "A desire to see justice done is what drives my friend Harriet Miers. And believe me, when Harriet is out for justice, she is a formidable character."

Mr. Bush added: "When it comes to cross-examination, Harriet can fillet better than Mrs. Paul. I know first-hand. She is my lawyer."

A few days later, Ms. Miers wrote to thank the Bushes, saying, "Texas has a very popular governor and first lady!" She recalled a little girl who collected Mr. Bush's autograph and said, "I was struck by the tremendous impact you have on the children whose lives you touch."

The notes to Mr. Bush date from at least March 1995, around the time he named her to the lottery commission, the files show. On March 25, on the letterhead of her Dallas law firm, Locke Purnell Rain Harrell, Ms. Miers wrote to thank him "for taking the time to visit in the office and on the plane back - cool!"

"Keep up all the great work," she wrote. "The state is in great hands. Thanks also for yours and your family's personal sacrifice."

In October 1997, Ms. Miers sent Mr. Bush a flowery greeting card in thanks for a letter that he had written on her behalf. In it, she said of his daughters: "Hopefully Jenna and Barbara recognize that their parents are 'cool' - as do the rest of us."

She added, "All I hear is how great you and Laura are doing," and ended, "Texas is blessed."

A spokesman for the White House, Allen Abney, said he did not have enough information on the exchanges to comment in detail.

"We've said all along they are close," Mr. Abney said. "The president nominated Ms. Miers because of her qualifications and because he knows her and they share the same conservative judicial philosophy."

The documents, released on Monday at the archives and covering 1995 to 2000, did not touch on her views on sensitive social issues. They also were not related to Mr. Bush's campaigns for governor and president. Those files are held with his father's papers at Texas A&M and are not public.

Before the release, the papers were reviewed by the office of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, which made no objections. The lottery commission blocked the release of two confidential memorandums with appeals to the state attorney general's office.

The search produced more than 2,000 pages from the 2,000 cubic feet of documents from Mr. Bush's files as governor and more than 20 square feet of records from the commission. Some papers from Ms. Miers's time at the commission , a position to which she was named by Mr. Bush, depicted her as a bureaucrat with a keen eye for procedure. They also showed she sailed through her confirmation hearing. Minutes of commission meetings showed Ms. Miers in command, questioning employees and other commissioners on topics like advertising, charitable bingo operations and bids to help manage the lotteries. One lawmaker asked what groups could run bingo, saying, "Could the Ku Klux Klan?"

Ms. Miers responded, "Well, I would certainly hope not."

Nathan Levy contributed reporting from Austin for this article.