McCain: Bush Backed Down on Court Pick

President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers has split the Republican Party's conservative base, Sen. John McCain concedes.

Chatting with a small group of people before a Burbank, Calif., press conference backing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives, the Arizona Republican was overheard to say that John Roberts was "perhaps the best choice" for the Court.

But he said that Miers' selection had disappointed the GOP base, which was looking for a fight in support of a more openly conservative pick.

McCain said that conservatives wanted a choice that would energize them for the 2006 elections - a choice like appeals court judge Janice Rogers Brown, who would have guaranteed a fight, according to McCain.

If this had happened, "money would be rolling in," he stated.

McCain smiled as someone said it's obvious that the president has lost his "swagger."

McCain also mentioned that First Lady Laura Bush is very good friends with Miers, and he suspects that Laura was pushing the president strongly to pick not only a woman, but Miers.

And in a conversation about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the former POW said as a result of the abuse revelations he'd "hate to be the next American captured by the enemy."