Free Republic

Harriet Miers will be confirmed. As the reality of the Miers nomination and the near-inevitability of her confirmation sinks in, we are left only to look for positive signs that she will pleasantly surprise us. What else is there to do? I am done complaining. (God knows, I have done my share of complaining.) That said, I have a working theory that Miers may turn out to be a reliable conservative vote on the Supreme Court.My reasoning goes like this:The Three Most Critical Considerations 1. President Bush has consistently nominated top-notch conservatives to various benches. His track record is very...

"Read my lips: no new taxes." These six words ultimately led to what conservatives have come to see as one of the worst betrayals in the annals of political history. As Dick Armey - who as it happens was the Texas congressman who had led the rebellion over President Bush's tax hike - might say, "the President couldn't have been this wrong by accident." Let's look back at 1990. Even before the tax hike the President's conservative base was restless. A row over funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and signs of a sagging economy had created a...

There is no question about Miers good character and temperament to be a judge. There is a question as to whether Miers is sufficiently smart and knowledgeable about Constitutional issues to be qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice. That is why I am undecided. The above concern is not however really a conservative versus liberal issue. Assuming Miers does well at the hearings as to matters of her basic competence, on what basis would “conservative” pressure groups of senators oppose Miers? That she does not have a paper trail? That they are not sufficiently confident that she will vote...

Since taking office, President Bush has heartened abortion opponents by signing a bill outlawing what they call "partial-birth" abortions, curtailing federal funding for international organizations that offer abortion referrals and promoting what he calls a culture of life. But after nominating White House counsel Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court last week, he was asked directly whether he wants Roe v. Wade , the Supreme Court opinion guaranteeing a right to abortion, to be overturned. His response was less than direct. "You know, I'm not going to interject that kind of issue in the midst of these hearings," Bush...

Who’d have known that Harriet Miers would have caused such a ruckus just by saying “yes”? At first blush, President Bush’s nomination of Miers as the successor to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor looked like a welcome indication that he wasn’t going to shoot a flamethrower at the neighbor’s parched lawn and laugh maniacally at the ensuing pandemonium. He could, after all, have poked the Democrats in the eye once again with Priscilla Owen, whom he obstinately wrestled onto the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Instead, he chose a trusted adviser who under other circumstances would have been considered an...

With the selection of John G. Roberts Jr. as the 17th chief justice of the United States and the nomination of Harriet E. Miers for associate justice, President Bush's presidency has the potential to be defined by a decades-lasting conservative shift in the Supreme Court. And Bush may have the chance to name two more Supreme Court justices in the remaining three years of his second term. In the long term, the type of justices Bush has selected and will continue to select if given the opportunity — well-qualified, traditional conservatives who believe in judicial restraint rather than judicial policy-making...

The Washington Times reports that Karl Rove was "very involved" in President Bush's selection of Harriet Miers to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. This should put to rest the notion that Mr. Rove is a political genius. -snip- The world is made up of doers and kibitzers. We in the chattering classes are kibitzers. Many, like Mr. Will, have convinced themselves that thinking and writing about what other people do is more important than actually doing stuff. It isn't. Harriet Miers is a doer. She practiced law where it matters most, in the courtroom. She was managing...

Since I’m sure there are still many conservatives out there who are still upset and whining about Bush not nominating who they wanted, I’m wondering. Do you wish Bush had nominated who you wanted, even if it meant them not being confirmed and Bush being forced to pick a milk toast? I don’t think anyone can argue about the fact that the Republican majority in the Senate haven’t exactly acted with a spine or any kind of united strong conservative voice the four years they’ve been a majority. And it seems the larger their majority gets, the more its spine...

A lot of us here are old enough to actually remember the seventies, the shambles the country was in after half a century of liberal rule (including the liberal Republicans Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard "we're all Keynesians on this bus" Nixon, and Gerald "WIN" Ford). Even more of us are old enough to remember Ronald Reagan. Reagan made some bad decisions (Beirut, Sandra Day O'Connor); and he suffered some serious disappointments and setbacks. But the thing about Reagan was that he never lost heart. He was the cheerful warrior. If he lost a battle, he took the best compromise...

And that's the REAL reason the demonrats hate GWB: not only is he everything they hoped billyboy would be, he will be remembered for planting the seeds that grew into peace to the Middle East.....Washington was the Father of our country, and Lincoln freed the slaves, and GWB started the journey that will eventually bring peace to this troubled part of the world, and the rats hate him for it, so much so, that I wouldn't put ANYTHING past them.......The real democrats, who controlled the party when Tip was the Man, lost control to the clintonistas, and he was so...