Posted on 10/05/2005 5:21:51 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
DALLAS (AP) - Harriet Miers is so private that three days after her nomination to the Supreme Court, even her brother says he is learning things about his younger sister.
Robert Miers, 62, said Wednesday that he has prodded his sister to tell him about her work with President Bush, but the most she will ever say is that she chopped wood with him at his Crawford ranch or jogged with him in Washington.
``She says everything is confidential,'' said Roberts Miers, who answered the door at his sister's 4,000-square-foot home in an upper-middle class neighborhood just north of downtown Dallas.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom brick home and nearly one-acre plot, which includes a tennis court, was appraised for $687,860 this year, according to property records. The house, built in 1963, is now on the market.
Robert Miers said his sister bought the house nearly 20 years ago largely for their mother, Sally. Their father, Harris, suffered a stroke while Harriet Miers was in college and died in 1973.
He said their 91-year-old mother has brittle bones and dementia, and when her health took a turn for the worse this summer, she was placed in a nursing home.
Harriet Miers really has not lived at the home since she went to Washington in 2000, Robert Miers said. His sister visits Dallas frequently, and the siblings had helped care for their mother along with nurses.
He said his sister's quiet nature reminds him and his brothers - Dr. Jeb Stuart Miers of Dallas and Harris Miers Jr. of Houston - of their mother.
``There's a lot of people, including my brothers, that are not as surprised as you might think about the nomination because of the quality of her nature, the beauty of her spirit,'' Robert Miers said.
The family knew Harriet would do important things in her life, but ``we never thought it would be the Supreme Court,'' he said.
Miers described his sister as a private person, and with all the media scrutiny into her background, even he is learning details he didn't know, such as closely she advises the president.
But he believes she has nothing to hide.
``Everything is public record,'' he said.
Smart woman - she knows her brother has a big mouth and a lust for the spotlight, so she doesn't tell him anything.
The tone as a whole has bothered me for some time.
Quality of debate has dropped dramatically as we've been getting inundated with the masses.
Call me a snob - I don't care.
I miss the verbal sparring and highlights of debate - I don't need photos accompanied with jokes about her gracefully aging appearance.
It makes me sick.
So a reporter walks onto private property to snoop where they shouldn't be and asks inappropriate questions from a nominee's brother and he's polite enough to answer civilly and that's your post: "Waaah"?
You sound like the baby here.
President Bush campaigned for Senatorial Candidates in his first midterm Congressional elections like few other Presidents in history. He did the same in 2004 and he managed to get a 55 to 45 Majority which has done absolutely frigging nothing for him in return. Those sorry bastards couldn't even get John Bolton confirmed as the Ambassador to the U.N.
This fact had to play a part in him nominating Roberts and Miers. Rush used the analogy of the President not willing to go to war with the Army he had in the Senate, so he chose Roberts and Miers he knew would not need their support. I whole heartedly agree.
The 55 Republicans in the Senate are not an Army I would want to go tot war with
I second your view. The regrettable thing here is that the right is already giving the left plenty of cover to trash Harriett Miers without facing the repercussions.
She clearly is of a conservative makeup and her experience as managing partner of a big law firm + her years (historic years) as White House counsel are impressive. Ann Coulter, George Will and others are judging the choice without giving her a chance in front of the senate. My gut tells me she can more than hold her own with the likes of Schumer, Kennedy, Biden and Leahy. There may be a meltdown over this nomination and if conservatives do not at least show her decency and a measure of fairness from now until the hearings we'll hold more than our their share of the blame.
Congress is the equivalent of a royalty.
We need to start throwing out incumbents and their heir-apparents and family members.
Nobody wants to do this, though.
I agree
I think you are right. There is plenty we don't know yet about Harriet Miers. We know the left is great at digging it up and whatever they can't prove they'll make up. The GOP senate to this point has been muted, with a few exceptions. My sense is that we will be at the brink of nuclear - but I can't today see the Republicans going nuclear because Miers hasn't won the Right's heart yet. I really think she could be a very pleasant surprise in how she handles herself.
I'm with you -- wait til the data is in. Good grief, such WHINING and carrying on. And after the fact. I find it disgusting, too, on the part of the conservatives. It's a done deal, isn't it, that he's nominated her? And the whining will serve what purpose? Only dividing the Republicans, as far as I can see. Perhaps Soros is behind it, or Soros $$, because a divided Republican party will surely let Hilary waltz in. imho.
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