UMD Prof: Miers Withdraw Planned to Distract from Plame Investigation

In a press release issued by the university touting experts to comment to the media about Harriet Miers, a government and politics professor suggested that her withdraw from consideration for an appointment to the Supreme Court was planned to distract from impending indictments into the investigation of the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

Mark Graber, associate department chair of the Department of Government and Politics, said, "There is a very good probability that timing of the Miers withdrawal was arranged to distract attention from the probable indictiments of major Bush administration figures this week (and another poor relief effort from Hurricane Wilma). "

He continued, "More evidence that this is an administration more concerned with managing the news than governing the country."

Miers withdrew herself from consideration this morning after an intense backlash from conservatives upset that Bush would nominate someone with questionable qualifications when he promised to nominate judges with a clear (conservative) judicial philosophy.

Why would a professor who's supposed to comment on this case go on a political attack against the administration? It reflects poorly on the university's ability to provide mature experts who are able to comment on the issues at hand without digressing into cheap and basless attacks against people with whom they disagree.

There is a time and place for Professor Graber to explain why he hates the Bush administration (hint: it's also not the classroom), but a press release on an unrelated topic is not that place.

And his last comment is an incomplete sentence.

For the full press release, click HERE