Bush's unpleasant surprise

Townhall ^ | 10/06/05 | Robert Novak

[Pikamax]

WASHINGTON -- Two questions were asked in conservative circles Monday when it was learned President Bush had nominated his lawyer, Harriet Miers, for the Supreme Court. Question No. 1: "Is this what we fought for?" Question No. 2: "What was he thinking?"

The conservative Republican base had tolerated George W. Bush's leftward lunges on education spending and prescription drug subsidies to re-elect him so that he could fill the Supreme Court with conservatives and send it rightward. But the White House counsel hardly looked like what they had expected.

Nothing could have more quickly deflated Republican spirits. The antidote to the Iraq-Katrina malaise was the spectacular confirmation performance by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Republicans eagerly awaited Act Two: confirmation of a successor to social liberal Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. This was one issue where the wind was at Bush's back, not in his face. But he robbed his legions of spirit with the Miers nomination.

Miers hardly seems the true believer the Republican base was anticipating when the president's agents spread the word last week that his choice would please conservatives. In 1988, she was contributing to Al Gore's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. She is listed as chairman of a 1998 American Bar Association committee that recommended legalization of gay adoptions and establishment of an International Criminal Court.

Presidential adviser Karl Rove, recognizing the peril here, was on the phone Monday morning assuring conservatives of Miers's intrepidity. The line from the White House was that Miers should not be compared with Justice David Souter, who was named to the court 15 years ago by the president's father and immediately turned left. While Souter was a stranger from New Hampshire to the elder Bush, it is claimed no president ever has known a court nominee as well as the younger Bush knows his fellow Texan. Skeptics are assured she is sound on abortion and other social issues.

Assuming those assurances are well founded, Miers's qualifications for the high court are still questioned. Members of Congress describe Miers as a nice person but hardly a constitutional scholar. Indeed, she might trip over questions that Roberts handled so deftly. People who have tried to engage her in serious conversation find her politely dull.

In singing Miers's praises, Bush agents contend her every thought is of the president's best interests, not her own. That may be a desirable profile for a White House counsel, but it hardly commends a Supreme Court justice who will be around long after George W. Bush is gone. By naming his longtime attorney, Bush risks the charge of cronyism. After the Michael Brown fiasco at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), Harriet Miers might seem the last person he would name to the Supreme Court.

Two weeks ago, Bush was seriously considering another Texas woman he likes and knows well. The nomination of Federal Circuit Judge Priscilla Owen would have been highly regarded in the conservative community. Owen was confirmed for the appellate bench only after the compromise forged by the Group of Fourteen, and Republican senators advised the White House they did not want to fight for her again so soon. But there is no rule that O'Connor must be replaced by a Texas woman who is the president's pal. Many well-qualified conservative men and women were passed over to name Miers.

The question recurs: "What was he thinking?" Bushologists figure the president was irked by repetitive demands that he satisfy the base with his Supreme Court appointments. He also was irked by the conservative veto of his Texas friend and Miers's predecessor at the White House, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. So, Bush showed the critics by naming another close aide lacking Gonzales's track record to draw the ire of the party's right wing.

Immensely enjoying himself was Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who let it be known to colleagues that he recommended Miers to the president. With Miers at his side, Reid praised her a little for contributing to Al Gore and a lot for being a "trial lawyer" -- no encomium in the GOP. With friends like Reid, Harriet Miers hardly needs enemies.

[SittinYonder]

If you disagree, give me some good examples of how he's acted like a real Republican.

He delivered tax cuts, though spending largely cancels out those. His foreign policy has been pretty solid. His judicial appointments have been largely good. His appointments of U.S. Attorneys - the ones I know at least - have been outstanding. But much of his agenda has been democrat-lite, no doubt about it.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Bush has screwed the base, just as did his dear old dad. The old nut doesn't fall far from the tree after all. A pox on both their houses.

[fizziwig]

Novak and gang are jumping the gun and it shows with his typical misinformed writing. Novak was never a bush fan anyway and is just jumping at the chance to pile on Bush. Novak is buchananish in his dislike of Israel.

Novak has about as much credibility as your average moonbat lefty.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

RE: Your tag line.

Answer = nobody.

[Southack]

"Bush, the ultimate RINO. If you disagree, give me some good examples of how he's acted like a real Republican."

Presidency of George W. Bush -- the first 48 months

 

President Bush signing a federal ban on Partial Birth Abortion

Banned Partial Birth Abortion

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy

Stopped foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions.

Supported and upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals

Signed E.O. reversing Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules that would have shut down every home business in America

First Missile is Installed For NMD on July 23, 2004

Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses

Built ten ABM silos in Alaska and California so that America has a defense against North Korean nukes

The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (less romantically known as H.R. 5382) ultimately allows average Americans to hitch a ride on a civilian space craft at their own risk. The federal ban on such citizen travel was repealed by HR 5382 in 2004. The President signed that bill into law two days before Christmas.

President Bush pledged to Israel on 4/14/2004 that it could keep parts of the West Bank, giving international legitimacy to Jewish settlements there

Denied Palestinian refugees any right of return to what is now Israel, saying they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state instead

Part of coalition (Russia, Israel, EU, Palestine, USA) for Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace"

Pushed through THREE raises for our military

Increased Defense Dept funding which had deteriorated during the previous 8 years

President Bush's Grand Strategy (click here)

President Bush's Environmental Record - 2004 (click here)

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers

Ordered Attorney-General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, NOT a leftist-imagined *collective* right

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e. the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty)

Signed the 2004 Omnibus Budget 1/26/2004 that now MANDATES that gun buyers' background check information be fully and permanently destroyed within 24 hours of the completion of the check, no matter what.

Repealed Gun Controls Against Active, Retired, and Off-Duty Law Enforcement Personnel Carrying Weapons Into Local and State Prohibited Zones (7/28/2004)

Enacted powerful tort reform legislation that moves many class action lawsuits from state to federal courts. Requires federal courts to hear cases where the amount of the dispute is more than $5 million, and when the defendant and any of the plaintiffs live in different states.

Disarmed Libya of its Chemical, Nuclear, and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed

Won an agreement that U.S. Navy sailors may now freely board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction under a landmark pact between the United States and Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry (signed Feb 11, 2004), and Panama 5/10/2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/international/americas/11ship.html).

Approves The First U.S. Counter-Intel Plan

Successfully executed 2 wars and rebuilt 2 nations: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50+ million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom...epitomized by their own free and democratic elections.

Provided Billions in aid, machines, and manpower to tsunami victims.

 

Executed a WAR ON TERROR by getting world-wide cooperation to track funds/terrorists (has cut off much of the terrorist's funding and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network)

Bush Administration diplomacy led to the 5/25/2004 peace accord that ended a massive 20-year civil war between Sudan's Islamic north and Christian south after two million deaths Click Here

  Delivered vital emergency aid to millions of survivors on multiple continents (e.g. Africa, SE Asia) of a devastating Tsunami caused by a 9.1 earthquake near Sumatra.

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia

Initiated comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE was critical.
Created NATO's Rapid Response Force
Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the Presidency

Reorganized bureaucracy...after 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency: the Department of Homeland Security.

Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.

Improving govt. efficiency with .8 million jobs put up for bid...weakening unions and cutting undeserved pay raises. Wants merit based promotions/raises only.

Orchestrated Republican control of the White House, the House AND the Senate.

Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

GWB signed an executive order enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision (re: union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes)

Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession.

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

Signed 2 income tax cuts ---- 1 of which was the largest Dollar-value tax cut in world history

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains

In process of eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people

Eliminated the Estate Tax (AKA "Death Tax") that was taking small farms and businesses from families

Signed into law the No Child Left Behind legislation delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations)

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Signed trade promotion authority

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

Passed Medicare Reform (authorized $39.5 Billion per year for preventive medicine such as drugs and doctor visits as well as included a ten year Privatization option)

Urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims

Submitted comprehensive Energy Plan--awaits Congressional action (works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.)

Endorses and promotes The Responsibility Era ("In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself. " -----this quote was too good to leave out)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Initiated review of all federal agencies with a goal to eliminate federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of federal gov while increasing private sector jobs.

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become The League of Nations ( in other words, completely irrelevant)

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

President Bush opened up an additional part of Alaska for domestic oil drilling. In 2004, the National Petroleum Reserve, an area west of the existing Prudhoe Bay field, was approved for new energy exploration and production.

Increased U.S. Oil Drilling Permits 70% Above Clinton-era

Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary clean-up of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

As part of the national forests clean-up, the President restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges) and removed the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
New Forest Rules Gives States Power Over Federal Forests Inside Their Borders
Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

President Bush signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal Aliens
S. 1685, the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, was signed by President Bush on December 3, 2003.
It extends for five years the workplace employment eligibility authorization pilot programs created in 1996. It expands the pilot programs from the original five states to all 50 states.

U.S. Forces In Baghdad

---

2nd Term Supplimental (incomplete)

---

Broke the Chinese Yuan to Dollar currency peg
CAFTA - President Bush signing CAFTA

Bolton to the UN
Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the second group of eight ABM silos in Alaska and California so that America has a land-based defense (in addition to our sea-based SM-3 and AEGIS systems) of 18 ABM's against North Korean nukes (note: China itself currently only has 24 -out of several hundred- nuclear ICBM's capable of reaching the U.S.)
Energy Bill (new tax cuts...after 5 years of opposition)
Immunity For Gun Manufacturers From Crime-Related Lawsuits
5% unemployment
3.4% annual (after inflation, 5.5% actual) reported GDP Growth
Syrian Troops forced to withdraw from Lebanon

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/07/933f746d-c5d8-491a-bd7c-566de1b66135.html Russians Troops Peacefully Withdraw From Georgia
Disarmed North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program
Chief Justice John Roberts

[Dane]

and dane, the ultimate quisling.

There, we have three 'utlimates' on this thread alone. Somebody slap a blue ribbon on it and give it a pleasant sounding award

And flashbunny, the ultimate denier, uh see reply #6.

BTW, nice pic of you wearing your blue ribbon.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

So, if we end up bankrupt and overrun by 100 million Mexicans and Islamists, this is OK since we got a tax cut?

[NeoCaveman]

I did not say that. Nice straw man by the way....

I was responding to this question: If you disagree, give me some good examples of how he's acted like a real Republican

I think I did answer it, and threw in where I thought GWB has not done a good job to boot.

[Republic of Texas]

I noticed a decided lack of Veto's in that list. Surely there was ONE spending bill that was worthy of a Veto from a Conservative President?

[rwfromkansas]

"Indeed, she might trip over questions that Roberts handled so deftly."

For a townhall article, this is rather ignorant.

Miers is the one who grilled these nominees. She knows the questions that will be asked and how to respond.

[flashbunny]

according to dane, there is no border problem, so don't worry about a thing.

[DJ MacWoW]

Doesn't it seem just a little suspicious to you how gleeful the press is that Bush is taking heat from his right? Almost like they want to encourage it...but they'd never use the news to manipulate anyone, would they? Would they?

And conservatives are eating it up as if it were manna.

[Siena Dreaming]

That is a FABULOUS post!

How fickle the conservatives are eh? We have a fabulous President. I LOVE him!

Saving your wonderful post for my files.

I think you should post a thread just for that. Seriously.

[dc-zoo]

As I said once before, thanks for the great information. How soon we forget the dark days of the eight year Clinton nightmare when conservatives really had something to bitch and moan about.

[McGavin999]

The conservative Republican base had tolerated George W. Bush's leftward lunges on education spending and prescription drug subsidies

Hmmmmm. Let's do a cost/benefit analysis here. We have been spending money on education for years and yet scores have consistantly gone down. We could cut out all federal spending on education and have the same result. Low scores, millions of American children will fewer skills and many with social problems as a result. OR we could increase spending by a small amount and demand results. Dubya chose the latter and test scores have been going up and children are receiving a better education. Every state in the union is now expecting teachers to teach and the NEA is squirming. Good use of money.

Prescription drugs: If you get an infection and go to the doctor and he gives you antibiotics you will take them and cure the infection. If you don't take the antibiotics your infection will go systemic and you will end up in the hospital. Cost of anti-biotics $100.00, cost of an average hospital stay $5,000.00. The same with high blood pressure medicine vs. by-pass surgery. No matter how much prescription drugs cost, they are far less expensive than the resulting hospital stay. Good use of money.

I agree that spending on other things has gone way out of line, but that is a function of congress.

[hsalaw]

Thanks for the great post - a nice review of a lot of good things. I do wish he'd actually veto some pork spending, but maybe he thinks it's good for the economy. Thanks again for the reminders.

[PISANO]

I love the way history is blatantly mistated. After we did NOT find WMD in IRAQ, the ONLY reason we went to war was because IRAQ had WMD. Now the ONLY reason we re-elected George Bush was to get more conservatives Judges on the Supreme Court.

I expect lies from the LEFT and MSM but now we are getting the same BS from the right.

[Black Tooth]

Novak was never a bush fan anyway

A Fan?

Interesting people using words that generally describe others that worship celebrities.

[msnimje]

It's going to be long three years if Miers isn't a female Scalia.

Actually, it is going to be a long 20 or so years.