The Miers revolution [Offending your supporters has real-world consequences]

National Post ^ | Oct. 11, 2005 | David Frum

[claudiustg]

---This anecdote almost invites the retort: Well why don't we go all the way and put Barney the purple dinosaur on the court?---

That would be OK I guess, as long as we run it by Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, George Will, Patrick Buchanan, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michelle Malkin and many, many others...first.

[syriacus]

How ironic that Kristol,
who insisted that the President's nominees deserve an up or down vote,
is abandoning this principle within 6 months of publishing it.

[kittymyrib]

If the President knew Ms. Miers so well, did he know she gave campaign donations to Democrats? This one fact sticks in my craw because it shows she is NOT a conservative. We have been suckered once again.

[syriacus]

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.

Interesting idea.....to compare the Republican presidents' nominees.

How well did those presidents's other federal court nominees turn out ....compared to Bush's other federal choices?

[al_again]

It is his choice - and a damn poor one at that. What the hell did he expect??? The conservative base is now split between conservatives and cheerleaders. The conservatives, including myself , believe that the President has let them down.

He had a long list of qualified candidates to choose from, yet he decides to go with an unknown friend instead. This was an incredibly bad move and Bush deserves every bit of the bad press he is getting!

[syriacus]

f the President knew Ms. Miers so well, did he know she gave campaign donations to Democrats?

Of course he did.

[sauropod]

I'm convinced she will not.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee!

[ClearCase_guy]

7 of the 9 were chosen by Republican Presidents who told us not to worry. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.

Vapid.

Bush has put quite a few people on the federal bench. Which of them do you criticize? Bush has put one person on the Supreme Court. Why do you dislike Roberts?

The "7 of 9" bit is no reflection on Bush at all. And what the heck does it mean? Republicans have made mistakes? And so Republicans should no longer appoint anyone to the Suprem Court? Because appointing someone would be "doing the same thing over and over"?

Bush did something different. He nominated a woman whom he knew very very well and whom he trusted. THAT's doing something different.

[syriacus]

The conservatives...believe that the President has let them down.

Some of The conservatives....believe that the President has let them down.

I'll wait for the hearings, before throwing stones at Bush's nominee.

[mlc9852]

And what is your main objection to her?

[Blood of Tyrants]

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.

Naaa, that's the definition of INSANITY. Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and not knowing what the outcome will be.

[doberville]

"Miers appears to have been drawn from the D team.. . ."

Therein lies the rub. We don't KNOW what MS Miers is about and won't find out until she's on the bench. We will have to trust GWB.

The inability to trust the president appears to be the largest drawback so far, eh?

[sauropod]

She is the anti-Souter.

Male bovine fecal effluvia. She is Souter writ large.

This is the president who put Janice Rogers Brown on the Federal bench.

Then he could have put her on the SCOTUS. IIRC, it was not the president that pushed through her confirmation. It was the conservative base (Club for Growth, Progress for America, etc.).

[rbmillerjr]

Maybe Kristol wasn't expectig Bush to do the Dems bidding?

[Pietro]

The only thing more nauseating than W's open disregard for his base is that RINO McSphincter laying down the law on what's acceptable.

That freakin' ingrate begged W (and Santorum)for support for his re-election, and then begged W to let him stay on as head of the judiciary and now he sticks a knife in his back.

So much for W's stellar ability to judge character!

[jveritas]

So what the f*** do you want people? Do you want the President to withdraw Miers nomination? Suppose he does not do it? What do you want to do? vote Democrat? Stay home? or vote for a third party? F***ing do it and stop whining.

[nina0113]

Hugh Hewitt was spinning like a top last night, saying that Miers has impeccable credentials as a lawyer (huh? Lottery commission?) and that being an originalist is "easy" - that reading the constitution and interpreting it is not a big deal.

I've heard that same garbage all over Free Republic too. Constitutional Law is NOT Patent Law is NOT Estate Law is NOT Criminal Law. Areas of Practice are NOT interchangeable.

Hewitt would have been closer to correct at the beginning of the Republic. Now there are 200+ years of precedents set by prior Supreme Courts to be considered. They have to look at what effect any current decision will have on the caselaw that followed those precedents, and what the reasoning behind those earlier precedents was. I'm not married to stare decisis but I've got a lot of respect for it. It's kind of the antithesis of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

[BluH2o]

One Republican lawyer told me of a briefing session to prepare Miers to enter into her duties as White House Counsel a year ago. A panel of lawyers who had served in past Republican White Houses was gathered together. After a couple of hours of questions and answers, Miers left to return to the office. There was a silence. Then somebody hopefully piped up: "Maybe if we can find her a really strong deputy ..."

As one pundit put it ... with Miers we're getting hamburger when we could be getting filet mignon. We're getting Freixenet when we could be getting Dom Perignon.

[conservativecorner]

And this was the only women who would fit the bill? If you think so, I have some lovely land in the Everglades that will put you in the thick of things if you love wildlife.

[syriacus]

Looks like Krauthammer abandoned his principle of up-or-down votes on judicial nominees almost as quickly as Kristol did.

"Republicans have a perfectly constitutional, perfectly reasonable case for demanding an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees, "

Charles Krauthammer, May 13, 2005