Four unpleasant facts about Harriet Miers

• When Miers was Bush's appointee to head the Texas State Lottery Commission, the lottery was accused by a former director of awarding multimillion-dollar, no-bid contracts to a technology firm represented by former Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes. Barnes has since said he helped Bush escape active duty in Vietnam, and the lottery director alleged that Barnes demanded (and under Miers, received) the lucrative public contracts to keep quiet about Bush's military service.

• As governor of Texas, Bush signed a law blocking Texas consumers from collecting a $6 billion dollar judgment against car dealers for predatory lending practices and for secret kickbacks. The law firm Miers headed represented the auto dealers.

• Miers was hired as legal counsel on both of Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. Among other things, her research was used to persuade a local judge to excuse then-Governor Bush from jury duty, a civic task that would have forced him to disclose his 1976 arrest for drunken driving in Maine. As a result, he was able to keep his arrest secret until late in the 2000 presidential campaign.

• Miers' personal friendship with and allegiance to Bush has been cited for years in connection with her promotions, including that of White House Counsel.