http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html

…[T]he Wall Street Journal’s John Fund digs up a story that, if true, will have a major impact on the Miers debate:

“On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, James Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the Miers nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained, and on which the following account is based. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers’s close friends — both sitting judges — said that she would vote to overturn Roe.

“The call was moderated by the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. Participating were 13 members of the executive committee of the Arlington Group, an umbrella alliance of 60 religious conservative groups, including Gary Bauer of American Values, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and the Rev. Bill Owens, a black minister. Also on the call were Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal district court judge.

“Dr. Dobson says he spoke to Mr. Rove on Oct. 2, the day before President Bush announced the nomination. Mr. Rove assured Dr. Dobson that Ms. Miers was an evangelical Christian and a strict constructionist, and said that Justice Hecht, a longtime friend of Ms. Miers who’d helped her join an evangelical church in 1979, could provide background. Later that day, a personal friend of Dr. Dobson’s in Texas called him and suggested he speak with Judge Kinkeade, a friend of Ms. Miers’s for decades. . . .

“What followed was a free-wheeling discussion about many topics, including same-sex marriage. Justice Hecht said he’d never discussed that issue with Ms. Miers. Then an unidentified voice asked the two men, ‘Based on your personal knowledge of her, if she had the opportunity, do you believe she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?’ ‘Absolutely,’ said Judge Kinkeade. ‘I agree with that,’ said Justice Hecht. ‘I concur.’”

So much for keeping an open legal mind.