Warren Rudman, a former U.S. senator who knows a thing or two about Supreme Court nominations, wasn't surprised to hear that Harriet Miers withdrew her name from consideration yesterday.

"It was becoming a perfect storm, promising an extraordinarily contentious hearing," Rudman said. "She didn't want to put the president or herself through that."

And Rudman, the New Hampshire Republican who shepherded Justice David Souter down his own confirmation road 15 years ago, can guess where that storm started brewing: behind closed doors, as Miers met one-on-one with members of the Senate.

"A lot of how this goes depends on the interviews with the individual senators,"Rudman said. "And in her case, those didn't go terribly well."

As news of Miers's withdrawal spread through New Hampshire political circles, there was no shortage of theories as to why President Bush pulled back his Supreme Court nominee. But everyone agreed on one thing: It was bound to happen.

"I wasn't surprised, because the Republican right wing had been rattling their sabers for several weeks over this," said Sen. Peter Burling, a Democrat from Cornish. "It was pretty clear they weren't willing to accept this nomination."

Bill Gabler, chairman of the Grafton County Republican Party, agreed. He said the Miers episode was bad news for the GOP.

"It's just another example of the fractured nature of the Republican Party right now," Gabler said. "I wish it weren't that way. But the party is, in many ways, at odds with itself."

While Miers met stiff resistance from many Republicans in Washington, she found plenty of support among New Hampshire's GOP - at least at the party's highest level. The state Republican executive committee passed a resolution two weeks ago endorsing Miers's nomination, citing her "outstanding character, good morals and intellect."

Such support did little to silence criticism that Miers was unqualified for the high court and lacked a paper trail that would provide a glimpse of her judicial philosophy. That criticism did not surprise Ovide Lamontagne, a Republican lawyer from Manchester. What struck Lamontagne as odd was the timing of the debate: before Miers's Senate hearings even began.

"In the past, most of the controversy has been generated in the hearing room," Lamontagne said, citing the Senate debates over Justice Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork's nominations. "This nomination became very difficult simply because of the public comments of people outside the process. And over time, support consistently eroded from all quarters. I don't know that I can ever recall a time where no one was happy" with the nominee.

While Lamontagne said he didn't know enough about Miers to form an opinion, he thinks it's good she stepped down.

"Even if she were successfully confirmed, there would always be enough questions about her to prevent her from being a leader on the court," he said.

Both Republicans and Democrats said they weren't sure what Bush would do for his next nominee. Rudman proposed two possible scenarios: The president could try to "satisfy the right" by picking a circuit court judge with proven conservative credentials.

"Or, if he's angry enough at the far right," Rudman continued, "he can take an extremely experienced judge in the John Roberts mold, someone who's not an ideologue."

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