Conservative demands on Bush are "PAID IN FULL"

I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but there is one factor in the upcoming confirmation fight which is sort of interesting. The anti-Miers coalition absolutely cannot afford any result other than for Alito to be confirmed. If Alito goes down and Bush suffers the resulting exponential increase in political damage, every loyal Republican in the country will hold the NRO gang and friends responsible. So now that they have the fight that they have been lusting for, they have to make sure Bush wins.

What an interesting turn of events! Much of the Miers fight was a proxy for generalized conservative disenchantment with Bush. Now these folks have no choice but to be Dubya's strongest supporters.

Note also -- this extends beyond this confirmation fight. In order to deflect the argument that borking Miers was a body blow to the president's political capital, they need to expend every possible resource to support and buttress Bush on just about everything.

As I see it, they basically collected all the moaning, bitching and complaining chits they thought they were due from the president and spent them to sink Miers. As a practical matter, all bills should be considered marked "PAID IN FULL".