Senators press Bush for data from Miers White House stint

WASHINGTON --Democratic and Republican senators yesterday turned up their pressure on President Bush to release documents from Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers's tenure in the White House, warning that a flat refusal is damaging the chances of a troubled nomination.

The White House sent notice yesterday that it was continuing to search for any documents that are not covered by executive privilege for the Senate Judiciary Committee. That appears to be a slight retreat from Monday, when Bush spoke of a ''red line" that he would not cross by releasing internal documents Miers wrote while working in his administration.

But committee members and aides still do not know if the White House would send any documents. And with hearings set to start within two weeks, the tug of war over documents is emerging as another distraction for the Bush administration. Members of both political parties have voiced deep skepticism of Miers's qualifications.

In a separate issue on Miers's record, reported by The Washington Post, Miers said in a speech more than a decade ago that ''self-determination" should guide decisions about abortion and school prayer.

In a 1993 speech before a Dallas women's group, Miers talked about abortion, the separation of church and state, and how the issues play out in the legal system.

''The underlying theme in most of these cases is the insistence of more self-determination," she said. ''And the more I think about these issues, the more self-determination makes sense." In that speech and others in the early 1990s when she was president of the Texas Bar Association, Miers also defended judges who order lawmakers to address social concerns. While judicial activism is derided by many conservatives, Miers said that sometimes ''officials would rather abandon to the courts the hard questions so they can respond to constituents: I did not want to do that -- the court is making me."

Miers, who was one of the first women to become a partner at a major Texas law firm, also showed sympathy for feminist causes, referring to the ''glass ceiling" faced by professional women and urging her audience to support female candidates. She recited a list of national and state women who crossed the political spectrum, including Gloria Steinem, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

The speeches offer insights into Miers's thinking on volatile social issues that can make their way to the high court.

Disputes over documents have helped the Democrats to solidify opposition to several Bush nominees.

In Bush's first term, the party sustained filibusters against federal appeals court nominee Miguel A. Estrada in part because of discord over whether the committee should see papers he produced as assistant to the solicitor general.

This year, Democrats kept United Nations ambassador John R. Bolton from a Senate confirmation vote because the White House wouldn't provide documents senators wanted to see, and the party tried but failed to force the White House to give them more documents connected to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s work as a Reagan administration lawyer.

This time, however, both Democrats and Republicans have sharply questioned the credentials of Miers, a civil attorney from Dallas who has no experience as a judge. That makes it imperative for the administration to release as many documents as possible, said Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

''They're going to have to try and err as much as they can on the side of openness in furnishing that information, because there are so many questions," said Thune, who has raised doubts about Miers's commitment to conservative causes. ''The paper trail's very thin, and more is better."

On Monday, Bush dismissed requests for ''paperwork out of this White House" related to the Miers nomination. Releasing such documents, he said, would ''destroy" the ability of a president to get candid advice from his aides.

''It's a red line I'm not willing to cross," the president said.

But yesterday, the White House's Senate liaison for the Miers nomination, Dan Coats, said officials were continuing to review paperwork Miers produced over her five years in the White House. Coats said he hopes some materials can be submitted to the committee as soon as today.

''The White House is doing everything it can to determine what documents wouldn't fall under executive privilege or attorney-client privilege," said Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana.

The Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter, said he is confident that the administration will give the committee relevant documents about Miers's work for the past year.

But Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, added: ''Overall what's really going to be important is her testimony."

Specter also said that a member of his staff has spoken with James Dobson, the head of the conservative group Focus on the Family, about calling him as a witness during Miers's confirmation hearings. On his radio program, Dobson said that the White House political adviser, Karl Rove, told him things Dobson ''probably shouldn't know" to reassure him that Miers is a solid conservative.

Senators are also hoping Miers's White House papers will give hints about her role in policy discussions -- as well as areas in which she may have to recuse herself.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said Miers would not tell her what types of cases would present a conflict.

''It's really relevant to see what has crossed her desk," Feinstein said.

Charlie Savage of the Globe staff contributed to this report.