The woman who would be justice

In her work at the White House, colleagues credit her for fairness, thoroughness, and an unflappable nature. Chris Marston, currently the Washington director for Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, worked with Miers when he was chief of staff for the Office of the National Drug Control Policy and she was deputy chief of staff for President Bush.

"She always did a very good job making sure that everybody's views were included," he says. "As you can imagine, everything that comes across the president's desk has to be very thorough, and her temperament is very well suited to that kind of work."

Mr. Marston adds that she had her priorities. "She always knew she was working for the president first," he says. "She always made sure he had the best information and would ask really probing questions to get at the heart of something."

And as much as she is known for her Superwoman hours, she is also just as well-known for her devotion to family and friends, remembering birthdays and throwing baby showers for junior colleagues. Many women remember her as a mentor.

Jennifer Altabef is one. In 1982, she clerked for Miers's old boss, Judge Estes. The two got to know each other when Miers would have lunch with the judge. And after clerking, Ms. Altabef then went to work at the same Dallas law firm Miers eventually headed.

"She never would have said she was anyone's mentor, but she was somebody we all aspired to be," says Altabef. "She's an incredibly kind person. She's very thoughtful and balanced, and is just one of those people who sees all sides of everything."

"She's not going to be the first person to make a joke - she's a very serious person - but she appreciates humor," adds Altabef.

She recalls the devotion she showed to Estes and his wife at the end of their lives, and how Miers threw a baby shower at her home for three of the female lawyers in the firm who were all due around the same time.

"She was always encouraging me. Sometimes when I was discouraged, she would say, 'You are doing the very best you can. You are a young mother and a busy lawyer.' Once she even said to me that I had gotten a lot more out of clerking for the judge than she had because I had met my husband there."

When asked if she thought Miers had regrets about never marrying or having children, Altabef said, "She is a very, very private person. I'm sure she is the kind of person who is happy with who she is. She has that inner confidence and peace and accepts whatever comes her way and makes the best of it."

Around Washington, she has made some good friendships, including with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And she has continued to boost the careers of promising young women - to the point of behaving at times like a mother bear.

Kristen Silverberg, the former White House colleague, remembers a time when Bush expressed irritation with comments she had made on his weekly radio address, and how Miers jumped in and tried to take responsibility, even though it really was Silverberg's fault. "She was feeling protective," she says.

Silverberg also recalls Miers's exacting attention to detail - to the point of finding a math error in a regulatory document that had already gone through months of painstaking work. Miers, after all, majored in mathematics as an undergraduate at Southern Methodist University.

And now Miers faces perhaps the most exacting process of her life: convincing the Senate that this career lawyer, who has never served on any judicial bench, deserves a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.

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