Miers tough-minded and modest

WASHINGTON — Harriet Miers slipped into the back of the East Room to watch John Roberts sworn in as chief justice. No one knew then that the modest, unflappable and tough-minded Miers, who had helped lead the search for a new chief, might be next to don a Supreme Court robe.

Three days later, in the president's living quarters, Bush asked Miers if she, too, would be willing to serve on the court.

"I am honored and humbled and certainly would accept if you decide to nominate me," Miers told Bush, according to a White House aide.

Over a Sunday dinner of shrimp, polenta and chocolate mousse, Bush offered the nomination to his counsel and loyal member of his inner circle.

If confirmed, Miers, 60, would become the third woman on the nation's highest court, replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by President Reagan, and joining Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by President Clinton.

Miers already has a string of firsts on a resume that tracks a quiet but steady march to the top echelons of power: first woman hired by her law firm, in 1972; first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association, in 1985; first woman president of the Texas bar, in 1992; and first woman president of her law firm, in 1996.

"You can tell the regard with which she's held because she continues to get the 'firsts' and rise to the top," said Betsy Whitaker, a past president of the State Bar of Texas. She describes Miers as a private person who is never flamboyant. "She's not somebody who is a gossip."

At the White House, Miers is known as a diligent adviser, one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave.

Reginald Brown, a Washington lawyer who used to work in the counsel's office, recalls seeing her aging red Mercedes, with bumper stickers from campaigns past, parked as early as 5 a.m. some days and still there at 9 p.m. — and sometimes on weekends.

Wendy Long, counsel with the Judicial Confirmation Network, which was set up to back Bush's judicial nominees, recalls being in a long meeting with Miers and watching staff members come in and pass her little folded pieces of paper, which she read, pokerfaced.

Finally, after receiving four or five little notes, Miers said, "Excuse me, there's something I need to deal with."

"Bombs could be falling on the White House and that's what she would say," Long said.