Who has to save whom?

Robert Novak writes:

George W. Bush's agents have convinced conservative Republican senators who were heartsick over his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court that they must support her to save his presidency.

Excuse me? Let me see if I have this straight:

• Many conservatives don't like the president's pick.
• It becomes obvious that it's a political problem for the president, because conservatives expected a quality nominee for the nation's highest court and instead got a plethora of questions and unknowns about Ms. Miers.
• Instead of realizing he's got a problem and correcting the problem, the president's "agents" strong-arm the members of his own party to cover over the problem and support his questioned judgment.

At what point does the president realize that the way to "save" his presidency might be to take a bold step: nominate a quality candidate who will have none of the question marks so obvious in Miers, instead of "asking" conservatives to ratify a big question mark against their better judgment?