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"....Has Ann Coulter ever worked her way to the top of a 400 lawyer firm? Miers has...."

AC does not take exception to th fact that Miers is a successful lawyer. She argues that she is a mediocrity, which is to say she has not demonstrated any of the qualities that truly distinguish her in her profession.

She attended a law school that it would be kind to say was "second rate" at the time. (Perhaps its reputation has improved since). She was not asked to participate in its law review, an honor that is typically bestowed on a class's finest students. She has never written a law journal article. She has never argued a major case before the court. Her firm is considered "second tier" in Dallas, no small accomplishment in itself. She spent five years at the "peak" of her career as Chairman of the Texas State Lottery Commission: a part time job for sure but not the kind of activity that great legal minds usually busy themselves with. She was head of the Texas bar association, for goodness sakes, a politician's job if there ever was one that demonstrates her ability to get along with the legal mainstream and undoubtedly attracted a few litigation clients to her firm but not the kind of thing a legal conservative scholar would waste time on.

Her job at the White House was to push paper through the domestic policy making machinery. She failed to impress the aides on the Hill with her policy knowledge. Moreover, who would argue that the Administration's domestic policy machinery was adept? Perhaps she is not to blame, but she certainly wasn't the cure.

Bottom line: Coulter is right as rain about Miers. She may prove to be a reliable vote in a Scalia/Roberts/Thomas block, but she will do nothing to sway public opinion or swing votes on the court (Kennedy, perhaps Stevens). The conservative movement has no time for mediocrities. It needs stars and Bush missed a golden opportunity to reward a star from the farm system. Instead, he rewarded a reliable crony. This is awful.

I really don't care that she is not a Harvard blue blood. I'll not trash Coulter, cause I generally like her, but I think she's way off on this one.

Like most of the bashers I've seen, they totally ignore the political realities being faced.

We need someone more conservative than moderate liberal Sandra Day O'Connor. The worst decisions of recent years were 5-4 decisions. Had O'Connor been only slightly more conservative, we would have won those decisions.