Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court.  It was a bit surprising this morning when the news broke.  I thought Bush, under pressure from what appear to be impending indictment(s) of key high-level aides, would resist changing course on Miers, even though she had caused such an uproar among conservatives.  I thought he would not want to give in on anything that might be seen as a sign of weakness or failure.  Maybe he really is a Taoist sage.  As the Tao Te Ching says: "in yielding there is completion."

     The thing that struck me, however, was how his decision to pull the plug on her seems to follow from my recent I Ching reading on Miers’s nomination.

    Without going into detail, when I consulted the oracle two weeks ago about what we should know about Miers as a potential Supreme Court justice, it brought back the message: "Darkening of the Light."  Pretty obviously a bad omen.

    But darkening of the light for whom and how?  I had two interpretations.  One, from the point of view of US liberals, suggested a rising conservative tide that darkened the light of progressive possibilities.  The other, from Miers point of view, was a darkening of the light of her possible confirmation: the oracle seemed to be telling her how to get through these difficult times and, eventually, prevail. 

    What I did not consider was how the I Ching might have been speaking from Bush’s point of view.  The Miers candidacy was a bad choice.  It created all sorts of political problems for the President.  It (further) darkened the light of his leaderhip – it really made him look foolish.  And the hexagram provided certain advice to Bush, which I missed before:

He may avoid this [trouble] by maintaining his inner light, while remaining outwardly yielding and tractable.

    He yielded and now has more of a chance of working his way out of this particular mess.  Perhaps he should be consulting the I Ching.

    Now, about those indictments…..