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October 03, 2005
Conservative Reaction to Miers
The Right is ready to jump off a cliff. I'll add to this list as the day wears on, but for now, this should give you the flavor.
Me, the sources, everyone it seems was wrong. We've all heard the rumors, but not a one could believe the President would do that. Where is our Scalia/Thomas.
I think I'll let the President fight this battle himself, for now.
It appears, for what it is worth, that George W. Bush was the ultimate stealth nominee. He has acted like a true-blue conservative, talking the talk and walking the tax cut walk. But, he has expanded government, spent the future, and now nominated she who has the potential to be a female Souter.
But, in truth, we already know what's going on here, and that the president, despite a magnificent farm team from which to choose a solid nominee, chose otherwise.
[...]
If people are disappointed, they have every reason to be.
But near everyone I've talked to this morning feels demoralized (albeit some to differing degrees) with the Miers pick. It could be that there was just too much Priscilla Owen/Janice Rogers Brown talk in the last few weeks. But if Miers doesn't turn out to be a stealth Scalia type — maybe she will yet — people like Rick Santorum are going to be the most demoralized in the coming months.
After the Roberts pick conservatives swooned and said Bush doesn't care about “diversity”; it's only high qualifications that matter to this bold, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may leader, etc., etc. Don't we have to take all that back now?
Harriet Miers? Are you freakin’ kidding me?!
[...]
Oh, and if any of you RNC staffers are reading, you can take my name off the mailing list. I am not giving the national Republican Party another dime.
In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. She served Bush well, but she is not the person to lead the court in new directions - or to stand up under the criticism that a conservative justice must expect.
I'M DISAPPOINTED, depressed and demoralized.
A Disappointment.
Think of her as a very capable indentured servant of the Bush family. She'll do what they want. She'll be a very, very tough nut to crack in the hearings. And I have no idea about her judicial philosophy. But I imagine that's the point. When I described her as a flunky last July, a source close to Bush told me: "Don't mess with Harriet." I think they've found someone whose personal loyalty to Bush exceeds even Gonzales'. And in some ways, I see this very personal, very crony appointment to be a response to being told he couldn't pick his main man, Alberto. Harriet is his main woman.
And now, for something completely different, Harry Reid:
I like Harriet Miers.
As Matt joked, "Isn't 'Miers' a weird German misspelling for Souter?"
The right certainly think so.
October 3, 2005 in The Supreme Court | Permalink
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» The Right: A Pit Bull in Size-6 Shoes Isn't Enough from Daily Pepper
Bush nominated the loyalist Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, which isn't a surprise to me. Even though members of the Court are there for life, she'd best be loyal to the current administration in power. No big surprises. I... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 11:23:08 AM
» The Right: A Pit Bull in Size-6 Shoes Isn't Enough from Daily Pepper
Bush nominated the loyalist Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, which isn't a surprise to me. Even though members of the Court are there for life, she'd best be loyal to the current administration in power. No big surprises. I... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 11:25:06 AM
» Bush taps counsel Harriet Miers for Supreme Court from Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator
President Bush on Monday nominated Harriet Miers, White House counsel and a loyal member of the his [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 11:36:30 AM
» Miers: Rewarding Hero Worship from DemNotes
I suppose the biggest red flag to come out of the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination by President Bush should come from this comment, which I heard this morning on Good Morning America: "She once told me that the president was the most brilliant ma... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 1:11:05 PM
» Miers: Rewarding Hero Worship from DemNotes
I suppose the biggest red flag to come out of the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination by President Bush should come from this comment, which I heard this morning on Good Morning America: "She once told me that the president was the most brilliant ma... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 1:13:05 PM
» Ouch...shot by your own team from Freiheit und Wissen
Guess what? The Right HATES Bush's second Supreme Court nominee. [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 1:40:32 PM
» More Conservatives on Miers from Random Ravings
They do the work so I don't have to.
Ezra has a breakdown here.
Think Progress has a breakdown here.
It does not seem like anyone on the right is happy. This would appear to be a good thing for us commies on the left, but not necessarily. Th... [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 1:45:47 PM
» Miers from Get Your Blog Up
She's a consensus pick - in that there is a consensus forming that she is a "Bush's crony" type and not the manna that conservatives felt they were due. [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 1:50:26 PM
» A good thing, by definition from The J Train
Ezra nicely rounds up the conservative shitfit over Harriet Miers. As Atrios points out, this has nothing to do with the sort of judge Miers will turn out to be; they just expected Bush to take this chance to jab [Read More]
Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 9:16:56 PM
Comments
Again, remember, the point is not that Miers is a "moderate" (nobody knows anything about her, so she might have a secret Scalia poster in her bedroom). The "framing" of this is that Bush is a hack, that he picked a hackish crony for SCOTUS, and even conservatives were forced to acknowledge the hackishness of it (though by tomorrow they'll have gotten the memos and be writing all about the obstructionist Dems).
Posted by: M.A. | Oct 3, 2005 10:41:39 AM
Even though it is amusing to watch the wingnuts melt down, I don't like Miers. This pick just reeks of cronyism. Her qualification seem very thin, except that she's a Bush loyalist.
Posted by: Unstable Isotope | Oct 3, 2005 10:45:58 AM
Remember that conversation we had about Gonzales a few months ago?
This is a trick.
Posted by: Roxanne | Oct 3, 2005 10:46:45 AM
This is a trick.
There's only one person who thinks Bush is smart enough to pull a trick like that, and that's Harriet Miers.
Seriously, though, the problem with talking of "tricks" is that if Bush wanted to nominate a McConnell, he could confirm him. He's got 55 guaranteed votes for any "qualified" conservative, and it's not hard to peel off another 5 Democratic votes, even without the nuclear option. Bush can confirm anybody he wants. And he wants this hack.
Posted by: M.A. | Oct 3, 2005 10:51:50 AM
Ok, if, as y'all might like to think, we get a Democrat in the WH in 2008, or Congress in 2006, and we follow Billmon's good advice:
Clean Hands of unending investigations and prosecutions...
...then we obviously going to need to impeach a sitting Supreme Court Justice before we get anywhere. Miers hands are black with WH mud.
Or how will the other Justices view granting cert to cases that might implicate one of their members?
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Oct 3, 2005 11:33:56 AM
"Bush can confirm anybody he wants. And he wants this hack."
That is why it is important for Democrats to stand for competency and against cronyism and vote against this nominee. It doesn't matter if the repugs have the numbers to confirm Miers, Dems can use Bushco's record of appointing buttkissing lackies to important positions as a sledgehammer in the 2006 elections - only if they don't vote to confirm these cronies.
Posted by: CParis | Oct 3, 2005 11:34:48 AM
If this nominee is truly a woman with no particular judicial ideology, and no Republican Party bona fides except membership in an insane cult of personality that will dissipate in three years, she might be the best we could hope for (much better than Roberts). If she ever starts thinking for herself, the strength of our ideas might win her over.
Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Oct 3, 2005 11:38:27 AM
I'll put that a different way. I think there were two possible types of Bush Supreme Court nominee: A) Experienced and respected jurist with strongly held opinions that would be greatly destructive to the United States, or B) Completely unqualified Republican hack. We got A) with Roberts, and now we have B), which is probably better, because she might change her mind on at least one issue.
Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Oct 3, 2005 11:42:35 AM
We wouldn't get C) (completely unqualified NON-political hack with strongly held opinions, a la Clarence Thomas), because such a person would be unlikely to be Bush's friend. That person is now at the Heritage Foundation or somewhere and has probably said at least one bad thing about Bush's immigration policy or spendthrift ways, so no nomination for him.
Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Oct 3, 2005 11:46:53 AM
Please. Bush loyalists who do this kind of dirty work for him, don't suddenly go soft just because they get promotions.
Posted by: dramaticpause | Oct 3, 2005 12:17:21 PM
Great Pick! I hope she turns out to be a real swing vote for the Dems
Posted by: Dick Bush | Oct 3, 2005 12:48:14 PM
My old Texas friend Marvin. Trust him.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Oct 3, 2005 1:11:36 PM
What Cryptic Ned said, though B) needs to include the phrase "worshipful Bush apostle" or similar.
Roberts will be the real danger to our children's chances of living in a free society. Miers will simply be an automatic Bush loyalist, should he or his end up before the big court again.
Posted by: wcw | Oct 3, 2005 1:29:13 PM
Miers is an elder in her evangelical Christian church and...
"President Bush's choice to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice and moderate abortion rights supporter Sandra Day O'Connor was a leader in an unsuccessful fight to get the nation's largest lawyers' group to reconsider its pro-abortion rights stance."
Better hurry up and get them abortions while you still can!
Posted by: Captain Toke | Oct 3, 2005 2:33:10 PM
Ezra, I was reading your posts over at TAPPED and just want to say I agree. The right may be having a fit about Miers, and the left can enjoy the spectacle, but that doesn't mean we should support her. This is cronyism at its worst, she is unqualified, and she should be opposed.
Posted by: JJF | Oct 3, 2005 2:35:38 PM
I worry about advancing someone to SCOTUS who is the keeper of George W. Bush's attorney-client privilege. Shouldn't she just recuse herself now from everything relating to the Administration and get it over with? And what good is she to US the people then? She has too much career baggage and not nearly enough judicial experience (like ANY.) Does she by chance chair any horse fanciers' associations?
Posted by: Nuveeeeena | Oct 3, 2005 3:31:31 PM
You're all missing the point, here.
Miers is impeachment insurance; nothing more.
Posted by: theDocker | Oct 3, 2005 4:16:54 PM
It's a bit funny to watch the same people who say that ideology is not the issue, and simply honestly interpreting the constitution is their agenda, all complain about the risk that this nominee lacks the right ideology, since nothing is known about it yet.
You people on the right put this man, this king of cronyism in office.
You profess to believe in personal responsibility - admit the mistake.
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