I'm sold!
Why do I get the distinct impression that this is akin to what embracing Scientology feels like?
Posted on 10/05/2005 9:26:43 PM PDT by 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.
Unfortunately, President Bush seems to have an allergic reaction to Democratic opposition.
I'm sold!
Why do I get the distinct impression that this is akin to what embracing Scientology feels like?
Talk about being childish. That's not going to happen. Barring some revelation of incompetence or corruption the president's nominiee will be confirmed overwhelmingly. Even if you threaten to hold your breath until he withdraws her name.
You've really come into your prime with all your Bush bashing these last few days.
You seem to be really enjoying it.
And, yes, you can make that FOUR.
Let's not much up the drama queens fun with pesky facts, okay?
Interesting choice of words there, isn't it? Tolerated.
Some people might think that they've only "tolerated" him all these years, that he wasn't and would not have been their choice for president.
Oh, wait, that's right, isn't it? These "real, true" conservatives never wanted Bush as GOP nominee in the first place, did they?
Now that I've remembered that, I'm sitting here why I should give a big damn what they think about Bush and Bush's nominees anyway.
This post sums up the ones here who claim Bush has let them down --- (received in FR mail) and the explanation was written by a BRILLIANT poster who shall remain anonymous.
I always thought that a presidential candidate would possess a short list of people that he or she would want to put on our highest court. Miers may or may not have been on Bush's list but, sure as sh*t, the president could have made some effort in presenting Miers to the world at large. It is the President's responsibility that Miers comes on the scene as a complete unknown. There is much that he could have done to make Miers a known and respected personality.
LOL! I like that too.
This "base" business is so damn tiresome and false.
WE are the base. The ones who support him and trust his judgement.
The "base" doesn't use thier vote as blackmail.
I've been working my ass off since 1988 when I registered to vote at the age of 18. Even if that meant voting for GHWB and Bob Dole. Did I feel betrayed? No, and I didn't go around with a defeatist attitude written all over my face. You don't win battles by not showing up at the ballot box, and you don't win battles by betraying your own grassroots army which comprises the base.
Most importantly, you don't turn your guns on your fellow base members or your own leader because you feel defeatist and betrayed.
Oh please. What do you know about our borders that didn't come from supermarket tabloids?
I just spent 9 days along the U.S. - Mexico border, including 2 days around Playa de Tijuana and Tijuana itself. Unlike what you'd see 5 years ago, you don't see hordes of illegals running and swimming across the border. You *do* see U.S. border patrols, U.S. Coast Guard ship patrols, helicopter patrols, and a big steel fence that GWB built after 9/11.
Now granted, this increased border security probably isn't perfect, but it irritates me that people are claiming that we've "done nothing" or that our borders are still "wide open" and other such nonsense.
Yes, there are remote desert areas where environmental groups have successfully sued the Bush Administration in order to slow the construction of the steel fence. Yes, those remote areas *are* passable on foot (but you'd better bring a bunch of water and be prepared to hike for miles) for now. So clearly more needs to be done.
But we also have to give credit where it is due, and there has been substantial progress on border security in the last 4 years, contrary to the people who keep writing articles based on pre-9/11 information.
Once easy, Illegal Immigration Now Risky:President Bush Builds 12 ft Tall Steel Fence Along Mexican Border From The Pacific Into Arizona, Plus Around Major Populated Areas In Arizona and Texas
Though, yes .. one reason I voted for the President was the Judges .. but it was NOT the only reason why I voted for him
There were many reasons .. the important one being ... I Trust Him!
As for the spending??
Have these reporters ever watched what happens on the Senate Floor with regard to spending and all the Amendments that are tacked onto important legislation Bills??
They do this for a reason because they know the President won't veto a Military Bill
As for Harriet Miers ... we shall see at the hearing what kind of Judge she could be
Call me crazy .. But I normally like to hear what a person says before I throw them under the bus or not
Oh and that comment from Reid about Gore?
It's taken out of context .. Reid didn't just mention it ... a reporter asked him what he thought about that news
Can you link to a single post of yours that was **ever** complimentary of President Bush (just so that I can sleep at night knowing that you aren't some DU troll in "conservative" drag)?
No. It's too busy posting that Harriet Miers shouldn't be ruling on family life matters because she's never been married or had any children.
Frankly, compared with the present court, an Originalist who will look to the constitution and not international law would be a conservative that would send the court rightward.
You nailed that one!
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