I think the charges of cronyism are a cheap shot. Miers had to earn her own way unlike some of those Ivy Leaguers.

Talk about cronyism, they act as if they own the Supreme Court. Only the right people with the right views who go to the right schools and socialize with the right people need to apply.

What some conservatives need to understand is that without the middle of the road people who think the Democrats are acting whacky they might not be the majority.

I for one am tired of voting for people with an R behind their name just so I can be treated like the red haired step child.

I say give Miers a chance.

The president deserves his nominee and the nominee deserves an up or down vote.

sound familiar?

Ever since Robert Bork’s hearing in 1987, these hearings have been exercises in irrelevance. Beside’s on Miers could make slo-Joe Biden appear to have a brain. (Now THAT would be a headline!)

The reason conservatives care so passionately about SCOTUS is because no where else do the left and right have such irreconcilable differences. The left believes in the Supremes as a Super-legislator and engine of social change – the right rejects this view, root and branch.

But the Dems with support of the MSM have held out the freedom to hold a veto over the Supremes, despite being a minority. Ever since Bork, they see themselves as defenders of “mainstream” constitutional opinion, and pro-life, anti-Roe views are beyond the pale of all respectability. Public opinion polls support this “don’t change” veto-ocracy. Thanks to Senator John McCain’s (R) Gang of Fourteen deal, this minority veto game continues and Bush’s stealth nominee replies in kind by continuing to play to it.

Meantime, the forever suffering majority are frustrated by this rigged game, hankering for respectabiity, even (or especially) if it requires a fight.

This fiasco crys out for re-examining the role of the Senate. It can’t fulfull its obligations of independence and probity by remaining popularly elected. The 17th Amendment must be repealed! Clinton’s non-trial “trial” – the first ever in Senate impeachment history – was only the most prominant example demonstrating that the institution is broke. Why should we be surprised to keep seeing the place malfunctioning?

I trust President Bush’s judgement on this. He knows this woman and keeps his word.

I’m betting she surprises everyone in a positive way in the confirmation hearings.

Harriet Miers’ relative obscurity may be part of an overall Bush administration strategy. I notice Bush never gets too fancy in his speeches. The phrases & concepts within them are safely uncomplicated & not amenable to ‘interpretation.’ Could it be that due to the MSM’s propensity to examine every word for opportunity to twist into a negative spin it’s been decided to keep the speeches & press releases very simple & without nuance?

Extrapolate that philosophy into the SCOTUS nomination process. You would want to nominate candidates without a paper trail or official announcements that adversaries could distort & use against the candidate.

Roberts was good at thinking on his feet & fielding questions. I saw him oh so politely make Biden look like the fool Biden is & it warmed the cockles of my heart. After that the other grandstanders on the committee didn’t really seem to want to mess with Roberts too much. He was like a great matador; the idiots on the committee would snort, charge, lunge & hook only to be deflected harmlessly off course by magnificent cape technique.

So maybe it’s no accident from the standpoint of Bush’s strategy that Ms. Miers seems to have left no elaborate paper trail & has no judicial record to be trashed. Less is more in that regard. I guess because I’m not a conservative I am not enraged by her nomination. In fact I kind of like her because of who seems to be against her: snooty Ivy Leaguers & smug, righteous rightwingers. Let’s see how she handles the committee.

I remember a committee long ago that was going to slice a Marine named Ollie North up & serve him for breakfast. By the time North got through with them they were only too happy to disband & slink away licking their wounds. One final thought: You don’t get to be the first female president of the State Bar Association in a good ol’ boy state like Texas as part of a good ol’ boy profession like the legal profession unless you have a whole bunch of moxie.

Basically I’ve spent a lot of time defending (and rightfully so IMO) Bush against a lot of charges from the left. Quite a bit of the cronyism, and then….this. It may not really be cronyism – maybe he knows her well enough to *know* she will do a good job, but surely there are others that he does also. Then he asks for blind trust. While I do not “not trust” him, I don’t particularly trust him either (part of him being a politician – I trust him has far as I do any politician and think he is better than nearly all at a national level). It basically kills years of arguing – I can’t point at someone and say “stupid” because cronyism is more likely than not in this case and your thought basically boil down to how much you trust him (along with the “I’ve been telling you for years, your an idiot”). Ultimately he lost years of political arguing with this giving his opponents something to bash him on that can’t be refuted – after all if I’m “wrong” on that then it goes that I am on the rest.

Of the people I know and interact with (both in real life and on the internet) it is mostly what I have said above or simply angry that he didn’t pick a hard conservative. I don’t see being angry over reason two yet – like NeoNeocon I don’t know enough about her to make that judgement and there are few people who do.

Some also were looking for a fight and didn’t get it – I can sympathise with that (I too would like to see the fight) but the reality is that the fight would not be good politically and is a piss poor reason to nominate a judge – just would make me feel better spanking some leftist 🙂

Though, still, in the end the conservatives are still “winning” – even with terrible performance ratings, lots of spending, and cronyism the country still figures the dems are worse. No reason to gloat over your opponents 40% approval rating when yours is 20%. Kerry did that and it got him squat.

As to judging her qualities, I am content to wait on the hearings. I suspect she will do alright. In fact, I’m rooting for her. Love the underdog, I do.