As Bloomberg's Greg Stohr notes, President Bush is back to square one on the nominating process and must once again balance appeasing the social conservatives in his party against avoiding a "nuclear" war with Senate Democrats.

U.S. President George W. Bush is back where he started in seeking a successor to retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: trying to balance competing calls for a woman or racial minority, a staunch conservative and someone who won't provoke a showdown with Democrats.

The controversy surrounding Harriet Miers, whose nomination the White House withdrew this morning, adds a new complication to the president's decision. Bush almost certainly will want to placate his conservative allies whose opposition to Miers, the White House counsel, was instrumental in sinking her nomination.

Yet if he chooses a nominee with a clear record against abortion rights and affirmative action, he risks a fierce battle with politically empowered Senate Democrats. Democrats have left open the possibility of a filibuster, a parliamentary maneuver used to block a vote.

``He's not in a position of strength,'' said Susan Low Bloch, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington. ``If he were in a stronger position in other areas, he would not worry about the filibuster.''

And the lack of clout is not limited to the nation as a whole. As Jonathan Allen reports for The Hill, a growing number of conservative Republican Senators feel emboldened to buck the President at will.

"I think she made the right decision, and I appreciate it," said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), a possible 2008 presidential candidate who had been scheduled to meet with Miers this morning.

[...]

"It really shows the maturity of the party," said Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), another potential presidential candidate. "This is not a one-person party."

"I'm not just going to roll over," said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

All of this simply serves to underscore the points made recently by John Danforth, a former Republican Senator, Ambassador to the United Nations and Episcopal priest, who said,

"I think that the Republican Party fairly recently has been taken over by the Christian conservatives, by the Christian right [...] I don't think that this is a permanent condition but I think this has happened, and that it's divisive for the country."

So in which direction will President Bush move with his next nomination: confrontation, to appease the base, or comity, to appease the middle. This is another one that's a bit above my pay grade...