Because I’m something of a rarity in New York City – a woman who is a pro-life columnist – I’ve been getting a lot of e-mail asking for my opinion of the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. My answer has been considered unsatisfactory, but it’s an honest one: I am withholding my opinion because I simply have not honed an ability to read someone’s mind. That has not prevented many right-wing pundits, such as George Will and Patrick Buchanan, from weighing in negatively on the president’s pick.

It seems to me, however, that they are all doing exactly what we criticize the liberal pundits for: jumping the gun to make a deadline. I’m all for mounting a battle for conservative principles, but wouldn’t it be wiser to wait until we’re sure they’re in imminent danger?

One would think that after the cruel vetting of Miguel Estrada by rabid-dog senators, these gladiators on the right would be predisposed to uniting behind the president they supported last year. Senator Schumer, along with Senators Leahy and Kennedy, has been ignoring the president’s right to select his Supreme Court nominee. Now conservatives are doing the exact same thing. The Republicans gave the ACLU’s counsel, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pass because they acknowledged President Clinton’s right to select his Supreme Court justices. It’s appalling that they are showing less respect for President Bush.

Mr. Buchanan, who has never gotten over his failed presidential bid, wrote in a recent editorial that Mr. Bush’s aides “are now demanding that Republican Senators and conservatives rally around their president. They should not. They should tell the president, respectfully, that, though he went with Harry Reid, they will stay with their convictions.”

Ha! The moderate Republican senators have been abdicating their GOP principles from the beginning of Mr. Bush’s presidency, yet now they’re being exhorted to obey the will of Mr. Buchanan, who insists that Ms. Miers is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Mr. Buchanan, a legend in his own mind, once felt that a newspaper columnist was fit for the most important job in the country, so his opinion warrants dubious attention.

Well, I’m just an opinion writer, and I base my editorials on personal experience and interviews of individuals directly involved with the issues. The reality is that the hard-right conservatives were hoping Mr. Bush would courageously nominate someone like Janice Rodgers Brown, whom they all feel would be leading the battle to dismantle Roe v. Wade.

This is a very volatile, emotional issue that is extremely complex, and before anyone enters that fray, caution should be exercised. It is not yet time for heated statements. Some of Mr. Bush’s critics, like Mr. Buchanan, claim to be Catholic, and it would be the humble thing to do to touch base with their pastors before blowing off steam.

When it comes to right-to-life issues, my sources are the clergy at Priests for Life, a Staten Island-based organization founded by its director, the Reverend Frank Pavone, whose prime objective is the protection of innocent life, born and unborn.

The good fathers have shown more sense than the president’s critics. Instead of accusing the president of betraying his base, they have placed faith in his decision. In a press release, Rev. Pavone said: “Our prayers are with Harriet Miers this morning as she begins this important process. We trust the President’s judgment and his determination to fulfill his promises about the kind of Justices he wants to see on the Court.”

Rev. Pavone is considered by Norma “Jane Roe” McCorvey to be the catalyst that brought her into the Catholic Church. He also apparently knows more about the Constitution then our own Senator Schumer.

His press release reads: “The demand that some make for preserving the current ideological balance on the Court, or for more ‘mainstream’ nominees, is ridiculous. Do we have a more ‘mainstream’ Constitution in some generations but not in others? Or do they think it is up to the Justices to re-write the Constitution?”

It’s understandable that Mr. Schumer, a Democrat, is in attack mode against Mr. Bush’s choices. The Democrats are mounting their battle under the mantle of protecting a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. After all, they owe a lot of their financial support to abortion rights advocates. However, the hue and cry on the Miers nomination by the intellectual elite of the right wing shows that their egos have clouded their judgment and made them impatient. If Ms. Miers is unqualified for the Supreme Court, the confirmation hearings will expose her shortcomings.

The extreme right-wing base may feel that Mr. Bush betrayed them, but I think that, sadly, the opposite is true.