Friend says Miers lets criticism roll off her back (Nathan Hecht on Miers and abortion)

NBC and The Associated Press ^ | October 6, 2005 | Associated Press

[DallasMike]

  MSNBC.com

Friend says Miers lets criticism roll off her back
Texas judge confident Supreme Court nominee is conservative and 'pro-life'

The Associated Press

Updated: 11:11 a.m. ET Oct. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - Harriet Miers is unfazed by the criticism and questioning of her qualifications as she seeks to become the next Supreme Court justice, a longtime friend said Thursday.

...

Hecht, who has known Miers for 30 years, said he has visited her several times since she was nominated by President Bush on Monday.

...

“I don’t have any doubt that she’ll be conservative,” Hecht said in an interview on NBC's “Today” show. “Whether she’ll move the court to the right I don’t know.”

Hecht said he was confident that Miers is “pro-life” but can’t predict whether she would vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Miers’ commitment to her evangelical church in Dallas “shapes the kind of person that she is,” Hecht said. But, “It doesn’t shape her view on cases. In fact, almost the opposite.”

...

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9610371/

[DallasMike]

       

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[Sometimes A River]

Hopefully this means she is in fact quite "fazed" and is planning on withdrawing herself as a nominee.

The Bush can get to appointing someone qualified, like Edith Jones or Michael Luttig (among others).

[rhombus]

To quote a tagline: If you don't agree with Bush and the GOP Congress 100%, go back to DU. Are you being sarcastic?

[DallasMike]

The Bush can get to appointing someone qualified, like Edith Jones or Michael Luttig (among others).

I've followed Harriet Miers' career for more than 15 years and I see no reason to consider her unqualified. She will be an excellent Supreme Court Justice.

[Sometimes A River]

Remember, it's not "go to DU," it's "go BACK to DU."

You know, where Rush, Laura Ingraham, George Will and several other faux-conservatives belong ;-)

[Sometimes A River]

It appears to me that she wouldn't have even been considered if she wasn't a personal friend of Bush.

It also appears as though the very best we can hope for is that she at least votes with Scalia.

[shield]

I haven't watched her but I do trust W. He's not nominated one person for judge that has not been a conservative. Why would W change now?

She's just what us conservatives want on the SC. We don't want an activist judge from the left or the right. We want a justice to follow the organic constitution NEVER veering one way or the other. Miers is an EXCELLENT PICK...

[Terabitten]

It appears to me that she wouldn't have even been considered if she wasn't a personal friend of Bush.

And therein lies the rub.

It's a fine line between President Bush's much-touted (and rightly so) loyalty and simple cronyism.

[Kay]

Would you mind expanding on your observations? I have trusted Bush and still do.

[blackie]

Rush didn't say she wasn't qualified ~ he didn't know enough about her.

Ingraham and Will went to Ivy League Universities and like most East Coast schooled elitists, they don't think she qualifies because she went to SMU.

There are even snobs in the ranks of conservatives.

Get A Grip!

[SuziQ]

It appears to me that she wouldn't have even been considered if she wasn't a personal friend of Bush.

Would you rather he nominated someone who one of the Republican Senators or one of his staffers suggested, and who he did NOT know? Then you're asking for another David Souter.

[oblomov]

Why not just nominate Luttig, Janice Rodgers Brown, Alex Kozinski, or Edith Jones? None would be another Souter.

[Sometimes A River]

No, someone with a track record.

Reagan wasn't buddy old pals with Scalia or Bork either, and those were great choices, with a great track record.

[Sometimes A River]

DId you hear Ingraham list off the schools that her preferred candidates went to?

None of them were Ivy League.

This is a bad pick period, and it has nothing to do with snobbery.

[blackie]

It's a wonderful pick!

[fizziwig]

"Ingraham and Will went to Ivy League Universities and like most East Coast schooled elitists, they don't think she qualifies because she went to SMU."

I don't mind conservatives opposing Miers, but if that is the reason they can go eff themselves and the polo horses they rode in on...!

[Ragnorak]

I just don't understand where this Ivy League snobbery accusation comes from. I have no idea where any of the current justices on any court in this land went to school, nor could I possibly care less. I don't doubt that there are those who believe in and are swayed by such nonsense, but I have yet to see a substantiative charge against Miers that resembles Ivy League snobbery.

The simple fact is that if Miers turned out to be the single most liberal activist judge in all of history, we might be quite surprised at how Bush misjudged her character. But we know nothing of her, or her past as a Constitutional arbiter, that would leave us room to be surprised based on her own Constitutional track record. We only have faith in the President's personal assessment of her character to base anything on.

I'm certainly willing to believe that she will be a fine justice, but I have no reason rooted in her personal track record to believe that she will or won't be. Compare her to any one of a hundred other choices and you don't get the same result. If any of those justices were to turn activist it would be a shock because it would go against a very long and solid track record that has been public for a long time.

If she had a GED and passed the bar without going to any law school I would care less if she had a track record.

[blackie]

You don't get out much or watch Brit Hume on FNC at 1500 Westcoast time.

[blackie]

Go easy on the polo ponies. ;)

[Ol' Sparky]

“I don’t have any doubt that she’ll be conservative,” Hecht said in an interview on NBC's “Today” show. “Whether she’ll move the court to the right I don’t know.”

Do you think Bill Clinton was unsure what he was getting when he nominated Ruth Buzzy Ginsberg or Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court?

Clinton nominated known quantities and both performd as expected.

Maybe one of these decades if a Republican President names known originalists, the court will move to the right. We might all be dead by then, though.