"Since when is respect for excellence snobbery ?"
Since when are the nattering nabobs of the press the ones who determine "excellence"? If they could actually do anything, they would. Since they can't, they just nitpick everyone else.
Harriet Miers is just a glorified personal attorney and now she is going to be placed on the most powerful court in this country ? Is she an expert on constitutional law (and for the information of the anti-"snobbery" types this is an expert position. It requires an actual knowledge base of every constitutional decision ever made. This isn't your local personal injury lawyer.) ?
The legal profession has objective standards of excellence, like the medical profession or academia or the military. These are hierarchical lifer institutions.