Harriet Miers has withdrawn
Hooray! Now Patterico can come back inside from being out on that ledge 
How much do you wanna bet Bush has already got in mind who he wants to pick to replace Miers as the nominee?
WASHINGTON – Confronted with criticism from both the left and right, Harriet Miers on Thursday withdrew her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a statement, President Bush said he “reluctantly accepted” her decision to withdraw, after weeks of insisting that he did not want her to step down.
Bush blamed her withdrawal on calls in the Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration has insisted were protected by executive privilege.
“My responsibility to fill this vacancy remains” he added. “I will do so in a timely manner.”
Back to the drawing board.
Here’s Ms. Miers letter to the President where she requested to be withdrawn.
Link roundup of blogger reax at Michelle Malkin’s blog.
More:
John Hawkins at Right Wing News: “Happy Harriet Miers Withdraws Day, Everyone!” (a must-read post)
California Conservative predicts Judge Edith Hollan Jones (5th Circuit United States Court of Appeals) will be W’s new pick.
Brian at Iowa Voice says: “Now, Mr. President: nominate the most hard-core conservative you can find!!!” Heh.
Bryan Preston at Junkyard Blog: “Now let’s get a real conservative nominated and get ready to rumble.”
Jay at Stop The ACLU has more links to blogger reax.
Jim at bRight and Early suggests Justice Karen Williams, currently serving on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Afternoon Update: Ed Whelan at NRO’s Bench Memos makes a good point:
Harriet Miers deserves the deep respect of all Americans for her courageous decision to withdraw her nomination. President Bush likewise deserves great credit for accepting her decision.
Indeed. I hope this post didn’t come across as gloating, either. Especially considering the fact that I was neutral for the first two weeks of the nomination. I came out a few days later in official opposition but this blog hasn’t devoted a good chunk of time to why she should have been opposed. Plenty of other fine blogs out there took care of that. So bottom line is no gloating is coming from this corner (and my “Hooray” at the beginning was because I knew Patterico was finally gonna come inside from that ledge 
.