UPDATE: More from ItAffectsYou.org.
Reporters beat up on Scottie at the big house today over Harriet's "religion." An excerpt from E&P, but do read the entire thing, it's really good:
MR. McCLELLAN: The President makes selections based on potential nominees' qualifications and experience and judicial temperament. That is what he has done in each and every instance when it comes to appointing people to the bench. He has a long track record of appointing people who have a conservative judicial philosophy, one that is based on interpreting our Constitution and our laws, not making law from the bench. And that's what he bases his decisions on, not someone's religion.
Q So her religion played no role in her making it to the final group and then, ultimately --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, the President makes decisions based on the person's qualifications and experience and judicial temperament.
Q All right. So there was no -- no role at all in the President's decision-making of Harriet Miers' religion?
MR. McCLELLAN: That's part of who she is. That's part of her background. That's what the President was talking about in his remarks in the Oval Office.
Q Why is Karl Rove calling up religious leaders telling them it's okay, she belongs to an ultra evangelical church?
MR. McCLELLAN: We're calling up a lot of people --
Q Why that?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- to reach out to them and talk to them about the President's selection of Harriet Miers. And what he is emphasizing in those conversations, Terry, is that she is someone who is strongly committed to a conservative judicial philosophy.
Q What is somebody's --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, why wouldn't --
Q Wait, wait, wait. What relevance does how a person prays have to the judicial philosophy?
MR. McCLELLAN: Didn't say that it did.
Q So why are you peddling it?
MR. McCLELLAN: It's part of her background, Terry; it's part of who she is.
Q But you just said it was not relevant to judicial philosophy.
