An SF Chronicle editorial:

WHEN President Bush says of White House counsel Harriet Miers, "I know her heart," those words may not be of much guidance to most Americans trying to assess her fitness to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Bush has long had a way of speaking in code to what appears to be the main target of this and many other public comments that seem insufficient or even mystifying to others. Bush has mastered the art of effectively signaling to religious conservatives, his bedrock base of supporters, "Trust me. I'm one of you."

[...]

Most of his religious allusions are far more nuanced -- and his frequent biblical references, refrains from hymns and use of familiar "comfort words" to Christians may slip by most people in an audience. For example, an analysis of Bush's 2004 acceptance speech by a University of Chicago professor of the history of religions showed the extent to which his phrases about "hills to climb" and "the valley below" were aligned with biblical stories. As Professor Bruce Lincoln observed, the president who spoke of freedom as "the Almighty's gift to every man and woman" was casting his presidency "not just as a struggle for freedom, but a religious mission with risks of martyrdom."

In his second debate with John Kerry, Bush made what seemed at the moment, to many Americans, to be an out-of-nowhere reference to the 1857 Dred Scott decision. But the reference was anything but obscure to religious conservatives who have long viewed the 7-2 high court ruling in the Scott case -- which upheld the "right" of slave owners over blacks -- as analogous to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling on abortion.

As a court nominee, Miers has remained mum about her views on Roe vs. Wade, though, in a 1989 questionnaire for Dallas City Council candidates, she did pledge her support for a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion in most cases.