Posted on 10/04/2005 7:34:23 AM PDT by veronica
President Bush is a politician trained in strategic thinking at Harvard Business School, and schooled in tactics by experience and advice, including the experience and advice of his father, whose most lasting political mistake was the nomination of David Souter. The nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court shows that he has learned his lessons well. Regrettably, a large contingent of conservative commentators does not yet grasp the strategy and tactics at work in this excellent nomination.
There is a doom-and-gloom element on the Right which is just waiting to be betrayed, convinced that their hardy band of true believers will lose by treachery those victories to which justice entitles them. They are stuck in the decades-long tragic phase of conservative politics, when country club Republicans inevitably sold out the faith in order to gain acceptability in the Beltway media and social circuit. Many on the right already are upset with the President already over his deficit spending, and his continued attempts to elevate the tone of politics in Washington in the face of ongoing verbal abuse by Democrats and their media allies. They misinterpret his missing verbal combativeness as weakness.
There is also a palpable hunger for a struggle to the death with hated and verbally facile liberals like Senator Chuck Schumer. Having seen that a brilliant conservative legal thinker with impeccable elite credentials can humble the most officious voices of the Judiciary Committee, they deamnd a replay. Thus we hear conservatives sniffing that a Southern Methodist University legal education is just too non-Ivy League, adopting a characteristic trope of blue state elitists. We hear conservatives bemoaning a lack of judicial experience, and not a single law review article in the last decade as evidence of a second rate mind.
These critics are playing the Democrats game. The GOP is not the party which idolizes Ivy League acceptability as the criterion of intellectual and mental fitness. Nor does the Supreme Court ideally consist of the nine greatest legal scholars of an era. Like any small group, it is better off being able to draw on abilities of more than one type of personality. The Houston lawyer who blogs under the name of Beldar wisely points out that practicing high level law in the real world and rising to co-managing partner of a major law firm not only demonstrates a proficient mind, it provides a necessary and valuable perspective for a Supreme Court Justice, one which has sorely been lacking.
Ms. Miers has actually managed a business, a substantial one with hundreds of employees, and has had to meet a payroll and conform to tax, affirmative acttion, and other regulatory demands of the state. She has also been highly active in a White House during wartime, when national security considerations have been a matter of life and death. When the Supreme Court deliberates in private, I think most conservatives would agree that having such a perspective at hand is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Other conservatives are dismayed that the President is playing politics (!), rather than simply choosing the best candidate. But the President understands that confirmation is nothing but a political game, ever since Robert Bork, truly one of the finest legal minds of his era, was demonized and defeated.
The Presidents smashing victory in obtaining 78 votes for the confirmation of John Roberts did not confirm these conservative critics in their understanding of the Presidents formidable abilities as a nominator of Justices. Au contraire, this taste of Democrat defeat whetted their blood lust for confirmation hearing combat between the likes of a Michael Luttig or a Janice Rogers Brown and the Judiciary Committee Democrats. Possibly their own experience of debating emotive liberals over-identifies them with verbal combat as political effectiveness.
In part, I think these conservatives have unwittingly adopted the Democrats playbook, seeing bombast and gotcha verbal games as the essence of political combat. Victory for them is seeing the enemy bloodied and humiliated. They mistake the momentary thrill of triumph in combate, however evanescent, for lasting victory where it counts: a Supreme Court comprised of Justices who will assemble majorities for decisions reflecting the original intent of the Founders.
Rather than extend any benefit of the doubt to the Presidents White House lawyer and counselor, some take her lack of a paper trail and a history of vocal judicial conservatism as a sign that she may be an incipient Souter. They implicitly believe that the President is not adhering to his promise of nominating Justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. The obvious differences between Souter, a man personally unknown to Bush 41, and Miers, a woman who has known Bush 43 for decades, and who has served as his close daily advisor for years, are so striking as to make this level of distrust rather startling. Having seen the Souter debacle unfold before his very eyes, the President is the last man on earth to recapitulate it.
He anticipates and is defusing the extremely well-financed opposition which Democrat interest groups will use against any nominee. Yes, he is playing politics by nominating a female. A defeated nominee does him and the future of American jurisprudence no favors. By presenting a female nominee, he kicks a leg out from under the stool on which the feminist left sits. Not just a female, but a career woman, one who has not raised children, not married a male, and has a number of firsts to her credit as a pioneer of women's achievement in Texas law. Let the feminists try to demonize her.
If they do so, almost inevitably, they will seize on her religious beliefs and practice. Some on the left will not be able to restrain their scorn for an evangelical Christian Sunday school teacher from Dallas, and this will hurt them. They will impose a religious test against a member of a group accounting of a third of the voting base. Speculation on her being a lesbian has already started. "She sure seems like a big ol' Texas lesbian to me," as one of the Kos Kidz put it.
They are going to make themselves look very ugly.
The President must also prepare himself for a possible third nominee to the Court. With the oldest Justice 85 years old, and the vagaries of mortality for all of us being what they are, it is quite possible that a third (or even fourth) opportunity to staff the Court might come into play. Defusing, demoralizing and discrediting the reflexive opposition groups in the Democrats base is an important goal for the President, and for his possible Republican successors in office.
Then there is the small matter of actually influencing Supreme Court decision-making.
This president understands small group dynamics in a way that fewif any of his predecessors ever have. Perhaps this is because he was educated at Harvard Business School in a legendary course then-called Human Behavior in Organizations. The Olympian Cass Gilbert-designed temple/courtroom/offices of the Supreme Court obscure the fact that it is a small group, subject to very human considerations in its operations. Switching two out of nine members in a small group has the potential to entirely alter the way it operates. Because so much of managerial work consists of getting groups of people to work effectively, Harvard Business School lavishes an extraordinary amount of attention on the subject.
One of the lessons the President learned at Harvard was the way in which members of small groups assume different roles in their operation, each of which separate roles can influence the overall function. The new Chief Justice is a man of unquestioned brilliance, as well as cordial disposition. He will be able to lead the other Justices through his intellect and knowledge of the law. Having ensured that the Courts formal leader meets the traditional and obvious qualities of a Justice, and is a man who indeed embodies the norms all Justices feel they must follow, there is room for attending to other important roles in group process.
According to a source in her Dallas church quoted by Marvin Olasky, Harriet Miers is someone who
taught children in Sunday School, made coffee, brought donuts: "Nothing she's asked to do in church is beneath her."
As the courts new junior member, the 60 year old lady Harriet Miers will finally give a break to Stephen Breyer, who has been relegated to closing and opening the door of the conference room, and fetching beverages for his more senior Justices. Her ability to do this type of work with no resentment, no discomfort, and no regrets will at the least endear her to the others. It will also confirm her as the person who cheerfully keeps the group on an even keel, more comfortable than otherwise might be the case with a level of emotional solidarity.
But there is much more to it than group solidarity, important though that ineffable spiritual qualty may be. Ms. Miers embodies the work ethic as few married people ever could. She reportedly often shows up for work at the White House at 5 AM, and doesnt leave until 9 or 10 PM. I have no doubt that she will continue her extraordinary dedication to work once confirmed to the Court. She will not only win the admiration of those Justices who work shorter hours, she will undoubtedly be appreciated by the law clerks who endure similar hours, working on the research and writing for the Justices. These same law clerks interact with their bosses in private, and their influence intellectual and emotional may be more profound than some Justices might like to admit.
The members of the Supreme Court all see themselves as serving the public and the law to the best of their abilities. Their self-regard depends on their belief in the righteousness and fairness of their deliberations. They must listen to the arguments of the other Justices. But their susceptibility to viewpoints they had not yet considered is matter of both an intellectual and emotional character. Open-mindedness uusally requires an unfreezing of deeply and emotionally-held convictions.
Having proven herself capable of charming the likes of Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats, is there much room for doubt that Harriet Miers is capable of opening up opponents emotionally to hear and actually consider as potentially worthwhile the views of those they might presume to be their enemies?
George Bush has already succeeded in having confirmed a spectacularly-qualified intellectual leader of the Court in Chief Justice Roberts. If conservatives dont sabotage his choice, Harriet Miers could make an enormous contribution toward building Court majorities for interpretations of the Constitution faithful to the actual wording of the document.
This was debunked yesterday. You are thinking of Exodus International. Exodus Ministries deals with homelessness, still a worthy goal.
She probably uses them all the time to help her with the donuts.
"Where were the geniuses on campaign finance? On prescription drugs - which if not repealed will bankrupt the country? On saying that institutional racism hurt the victims in New Orleans? On border issues? On the "assault weapons" ban?"
You're not supposed to notice those things. Whenever Bush does something against standard coservative philosophy, you're supposed to atrribute it to some brilliant strategy that we mere mortals cannot yet understand.
I mean, after all, hasn't it been gworking great so far?
Unlike the Democrats, we play games about our beliefs. Incidentally, the article is wimpy, and should make conservative ashamed as to what they are.
That she will be difficult to demonize by the 'nags' is an especially galling reason.
>She will be influential because she will "fetch beverages"?<
The greatest leader the world has ever known was effective because he chose to wash the feet of his followers."Servant
Leadership" is the most effective and long lasting of all the leadership models.
"(Ive never seen Bill Crystal make such an fool of himself.)"
Actually, about 50% of his rants are foolish. He never got over his infatuation with McLame.
excellent
You evidently had no problem separating the gems from the garbage, and I suspect the same was true for many (most?) others.
You hit the nail on the head...that is why this administration has no enduring credibility with conservatives.
That doesn't mean, per se, that Miers is bad. It just means that everything they do is suspect. They gave us the finger before. How do we know they aren't giving us the finger now?
That is sort of what the author of the piece is trying to explain. I found it more persuasive than the usual diatribe of Bush bots which simply say "trust Bush and Rove." Yeah, right.
As already noted, even Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon got it right once in a while.
The job for conservatives is to keep the heat on...and pray that Miers turns out ok.
Oh yeah? McCain-Feingold. International Considerations. Employing stare decisis from lower Courts instead of using the Constitution AS their stare decisis as THE highest Court. I don't want someone who will use "established precedent" or their "feelings" when the Constitution spells it out in black and white for them.
Since there is no back trail on either of the Presidents picks, it may be a while before we have enough data to figure out if we have been blessed.... or screwed.
You haven't been paying attention then. He does it quite often.
Crystal is, I suppose, a "Conservative", but his first loyality is to his "home team" --- i.e. "inside the beltway people." W didn't pick a "homie" and that makes Bill sad, depressed and all of that crap. Miers sounds to be the anti-thesis of the typical beltwaty denizen, of both the left and right. She is not one of them.
Here's a question that I raised on another thread, which went unanswered (probably because of the time that I posted it) ...
Bush is great at thinking multiple steps ahead and playing chess while his opponants are playing checkers. Sure, he could have appointed and Owens or a Brown and "fought the good fight" and probably got the appointment through.
Instead he appoints an "unknown" (but to himself) who is getting a good amount of support from Democrats. But what happens if Miers turns out to be the evangelical Christian many think she is? What happens ... what happens to the Democratic Party ... if she wins the support of most Democratic Senators and then turns out to be the vote that overturns Roe?
"Why? Because so much of it was factless, irrational foaming at the mouth, something we expect from du-dummies, not those who should lead the free world, I.E. intelligent conservatives."
It was a group tantrum.....they didn't get what they wanted so wah wah wah.....now, as it turns out, Miers may not be the demon they expected and they have been given a lollipop to suck on....not as much crying today.
Hopefully none of the tantrum freepers will ever run for office.
I wanted Brown et al too, cuz I, as another immature conservative who likes confrontation, wanted to fight the libs....but I am willing to give Miers the benefit of the doubt and she is looking better all the time.
Still....a fight would have been fun...wahhhhhhhhh :(
It's a brilliant pick. An Evangelical christian who will sail through congress.
I saw the "lesbian" charge here on FR a few times. This place was no better than Kos and DU. Today is really no different.
The "drunk" charges against the President are being posted on the press conference live thread.
Sorry, it wasn't Jesus---it was Paul, quoting Proverbs: Rom. 12:20 "Therefore 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.'" Paul also wrote "Bless those who persecute you." (Rom. 12:14, echoing Jesus in the "Sermon on the Mount").
I have no idea what happens under that scenario.
But I think we are still one vote away, no? Assuming Roberts and Meiers vote to overturn, then that gives us 4. The other side has the 4 libs and Kennedy.
I suppose it's possible that GWB and Rove are two steps ahead. I just wish they would use this apparent "genius" of theirs more often.
You're right. As I predicted, the critics will fall into line like good soldiers when the time comes. They always do. George had a blank check with them and he knows it.
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