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"honestly believe I and many other so-called nobodies would be great Justices"

I always loved Wm. F. Buckley's remark that he would rather be ruled by "the first 1000 names from the Boston phone book" than by the Harvard faculty..... :^)

I agree that any decent literate US citizen with solid conservative values would make a better SCOTUS justice than the liberals we've seen on the court, BUT I do think sophisticated constitutional learning and argument is essential to waging and winning the "culture war" within the legal profession. That's where someone like Luttig could have a huge impact, but our PC-nation seemed to require that Bush pass over male candidates on this pick. If a justice does not write* legal opinions that carry weight in the profession and get cited by judges, law professors, etc. then his/her influence will be much more limited (though having one of 9 votes in a closely divided court is nothing to be dismissed).

*[It's become well known that the clerks play a large, sometimes, dominant role in writing opinions for the busy justices, but the best justices still do control the language and content of their SCOTUS opinions.]

Anyway, fwiw, I'm cautiously hopeful about Miers.... I think there were better candidates out there, but I do think she'll be quite good and a lot better than the liberal riff-raff who have dominated the court for 40+ years...... I'm just not sure we'll see her opinions treated as weighty by the legal profession, but then even Scalia (who is universally acknowledged as brilliant) is treated more with amusement than respect by most of the leftist legal culture......

I think there were better candidates out there, but I do think she'll be quite good and a lot better than the liberal riff-raff who have dominated the court for 40+ years

And it doesn't bother you that she has exactly zero experience as a judge?

Putting someone with her experience on SCOTUS is about on par with McDonalds promoting a store manager to CEO.

I am feeling more confident the more we learn about her. It has become so politcal and nasty. I just sense a bit of snobbery and that really bugs me. And, I truely believe President Bush is going to get a third pick!