Posted on 10/03/2005 9:19:26 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
IF ALL GOES WELL, Harriet Miers will turn out to be a less impressive version of John Roberts: that is, a judicial conservative, or constitutionalist, who will cause the ideological balance on the Supreme Court to shift to the right. She's not likely to have Roberts's gift for describing and defending a conservative judicial philosophy, dodging questions on current issues, and toying with frustrated Democrats. All she needs to do is come off as a credible mainstream conservative, avoid the questions that Democrats will try to trick her on, and persuade senators she's not merely a Bush crony. That accomplished, she should be confirmed.
She'd better be able to do this. If she can't--if she's not really a conservative--the political effect will be to shatter President Bush's still-strong relationship with his base. The love affair will be over. The president will have dashed the hopes cherished by conservatives for a conservative Supreme Court. And he will be far weaker as a national political leader as a result.
Here's what people at the White House told me after Bush announced to nearly everyone's surprise that Miers, 60, now the chief White House legal counsel, was his pick to replace Sandra Day O'Connor: After running the judicial selection process along with Karl Rove--the process that led to the Roberts nomination--she had become a candidate for the high court herself.
The president and others at the White House have had long discussions with her about judges. She and Rove were involved in questioning at least five candidates for the court vacancy Roberts has filled. From those talks over the months, I'm told, it became clear to Bush that she had exactly the philosophy of judicial restraint he favors and that she wouldn't "grow" as a justice and turn into a swing vote or a liberal.
Also, I'm told, the president is fully aware of the stakes in this nomination. Roberts's replacement of William Rehnquist as chief justice was simply a conservative replacing a conservative. But Miers would succeed a swing justice. With her, I'm told further, Bush believes he would be altering the ideological makeup of the court, moving it to the right.
The question is: why pick Miers and not someone with a judicial record as a conservative? Bush had before him a list of roughly two dozen potential nominees with unassailable qualifications and clear conservative leanings on judicial matters. He'd already interviewed at least four of them. Any of them would be likely to win confirmation. No president whose party controls the Senate has lost a Court nomination fight since 1968. And that year, President Lyndon Johnson's selection of his buddy Abe Fortas came late in the term. That made it easy for Republicans to delay and ultimately kill the Fortas nomination.
So why did Bush choose Miers? For him, these nominations are quite personal. He wants to feel comfortable with his nominee, confident his pick will be a conservative now and conservative 20 years from now. Bush picked Roberts after being impressed while interviewing him. His doubts were erased (and there were initial doubts about Roberts). My guess is with Miers his doubts were washed away too.
Conservatives shouldn't throw up their hands in despair, at least yet. They should wait until they hear from Miers as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's then that we'll begin to find out if Bush was correct in his view that she's the person to fulfill the dreams of so many conservatives and finally shove the Supreme Court to the right.
Only to point out that Gore, whom Meirs putatively supported, lost his support in Tennesee contemporaneously with his move from prolife to proabortion - costing him the election. I said nothing about the fact that Gore very nearly stole Florida.
Neocons like things that APPEAR conservative...
Bull Crap!!!!
Today, we found out which conservatives are actually reactionary liberals.
Clarence Thomas had a relationship with Rush Limbaugh, which is incredible.
I would settle for established relationships with the like of Rush, Sean Hannity, Phyllis Schlafly, Mark Levin.
Give us something other than our esteemed, yet troubled President.
Have you guys read "In the Red Zone (A journey into the Soul of Iraq" by Steven Vincent?
Good informative read about the naivete of the Bush admin, and the folks on the ground in Iraq living and dying daily.
Iraq is a very complex situation, which seems relatively lost on the Neo-Cons that got us there by convincing Bush.
Democrats were big government tax and spend property seizing quasi-socialist
This very stuff is happening on Bush's watch. Have you ever read, "Nixon, The Man behind the Mask" by Gary Allen. An old, incredibly well-researched and footnoted book that revealed how much "big government growth" occurred during the Eisenhower and Nixon admins that would have shocked us had Democrats spent it!
Eisenhower's and Nixon's growth, like Bush's the last five years, would have had Clinton and other Democrats blushing...but he gets away with it...with a supposed Republican Senate and House no less.
Washington is sinking in surrender to the establishment big government mindset!
"he sleptwalk through a hurricane..."
I'm curious what kind of drugs you're on - are they street drugs or doctor prescribed?
Very sneaky, Fred. With friends like you...
We pause this thread for an Activist message. Avoid your next Brownie moment! The House has passed HR 3231 The Child Saftey Act, which unfortunately had a late amendment by Rep. Conyers (D) that is a Hate Crimes bill. Call your Senator on the phone. HR 3231 is not yet scheduled for discussion in the Senate. But don't let them sneak it past us because we're not vigilant.
Here are related threads on FR.
H.R.3132 TITLE X--LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION
Yes.
Dum Dum Suckers
Headless liberals, running in circles
Not realizing they are such jerk-les
They cannot see a viable opening
In Bush's clever rope-a-dope'ning
They're left behind, with all their quirk-les
He picked Miers because she's acceptable to the RINOs and he only has to sell her to conservatives---the ones who confirmed Ginsburg by an overwhelming margin.
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