Libs, Dems: What should we do about Miers?

It's been fun watching the GOP get torn in half over the Miers nomination, but it's hard to tell what Democrats should be doing right now.

Miers is basically an unknown quantity. Bush says he trusts her, and she's apparently an evangelical Christian. On the other hand, she's supported (limited) equal rights for gays, and is not such a total ideologue that she wouldn't donate to Democrats to help her law firm's business. So it seems like she could be anything from a Souter to a Thomas.

I understand why right-wingers don't like her. They want another Scalia, someone who is unabashedly conservative, and who will make smart arguments to move the court to the right. They probably also want to have a very contentious confirmation hearing. In their wet dreams, the Democrats filibuster and lose when a huge tide of public opinion supports the ultraconservative nominee. Miers, in contrast, will at best be a consistent conservative vote, and maybe not even that. They've waited decades to get the chance to remake the court and overturn Roe v Wade, and they want a sure thing, not a "trust me" from Bush.

So should Democrats support Miers? She's obviously not who we would pick. It would generally be better for the country to have someone smarter on the Supreme Court. Bush might be right when he says he knows her views, and Democrats might get sucked into confirming another Thomas.

Ultimately, though, I think she's the least bad option. If she's defeated, Bush will probably nominate some fire-breathing conservative instead. The Dems would filibuster, but probably lose as the GOP peeled away a few moderates (Nelson, Lieberman, etc), and we'd have someone even worse on the court. Still, that's far from a sure thing--given Bush's approval ratings, we might win the filibuster fight and ultimately end up with a true moderate.

Other opinions?