"Frosty"

A post by K-Lo at The Corner led me to this interesting article. This year is National Review's (an excellent magazine) 50th Anniversary and yesterday it was celebrated at the White House.

The interesting thing is that most of the NR folks have been very critical of the President's nomination of Harriet Miers. Other guests at the party, such as George Will and Bill Kristol, have as well.

Sounds like fun.

Washington Post: The State of the Union Between the Right and the White House Turns Frosty---

The president, facing his jilted base, acted as if nothing had changed in the relationship. He entered the room beaming, joined by the 79-year-old Buckley, who stood to the side, hands in coat pockets, smiling a crooked grin. With Buckley (Yale '50) as his straight guy, Bush (Yale '68) reprised the amiable-dunce routine he used to great effect at a Yale graduation a few years ago.

It wasn't a bad routine, but it did not bring back that loving feeling. "It was really Katrina that set it off," diagnosed Jonah Goldberg, a National Review writer at the Buckley tribute. Conservatives were angry about the White House's unfettered spending after the storm -- and then came Hurricane Harriet.
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"It's the nature of all relationships, really: The straw that breaks the camel's back is rarely the most obvious thing," said Goldberg, who opined on the magazine's Web site that Miers "meets the dictionary definition of a crony."

And while the president tiptoed around the Miers quarrel, the conservatives, in their White House hallway murmurs, did not. "All the private conversation was pretty much about Miers, and pretty one-sided," Kristol reported. So can the marriage be saved? "The easiest way to save it would be if Ms. Miers decided to withdraw her nomination," Kristol said.