Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, accompanied by her brother and other members of her family, attended services at an Episcopal church near downtown Dallas on Sunday.
Miers smiled at reporters but did not stop to answer questions as she entered the Church of the Incarnation, which Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and other well-known state politicians attend.
When asked by a reporter if she was surprised by the conservative reaction to her nomination, Miers replied, "Nice to see you."
...For years, Miers was a member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, but she and about 150 of its 1,200 active members have left the church to form a separate congregation, according to Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht. A friend of Miers, Hecht also is part of the breakaway group.
Valley View is part of a movement known as Christian Churches and Churches of Christ....As a child, Miers attended Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. In 1979, she was baptized at Valley View, and she later taught Sunday school classes there.
Choice? Jesus said, "In My house there are many mansions". That about sums up my feeling on the matter. As we can see, at any given time people have differing opinions about everything and anything. Why would they not need different avenues to reach spiritual fulfillment? I think most people going to a church of any denomination are seeking to fill a natural need to touch base with their spiritual selves. Which is not to say that those who refrain from denominational worship are without their own road to spiritual contact with God. As concerns Harriet Miers and her church affiliation, I think that the fact that she has been a member of several denominations and has now joined with others in splitting off from one, shows she is indeed an activist. She is not a passive Christian for sure. Obviously a thinking Christian as well. She will not be a pushover for liberal thinking when she is on the bench of the SC.
"And this current "freep" snapshot has you reeking of conspiracy theories!"
Huh? "Conspiracy theories"?
LOL!
"Take a snapshot of anyone, take another another day, and you get to "create" your own story. It's the new way of education.. "telling your own story based on a couple of variables.". Creative writing, it's called."
I don't need to "create" anything. It's OBVIOUS to those who wish to see and comprehend.
"The article is tabloid in nature. What's the news? That she went to Church A? And then Church B? This is tabloid stuff. When are we going to get reports on her bias against certain large oil companies and because a photo appeared, with story line, that she gets her gas at only "XXX" Station."
Tabloid stuff? Calm down - no need to go off the deep end. It's reporting that she went to two churches in one day. Do YOU do this? I don't. One sermon is normally enough. Normal people, who aren't trying to put on a show, go to ONE church service on a Sunday. As to where she gets her "gas" is not something that concerns me. I do know that she is certainly NOT the best qualified nominee.
"And after that... no doubts some NY Tabloid will begin the "NEWS REPORTING" that she only wears a specific BRAND of clothing; and that clothing line is not tony enough for the clique culture of Manhatten, right?"
Again, calm down. I'm not interested in the surfacy stuff as you are - "gas" or "brand of clothing" as you are.
"OM! She better be on that latest no fat diet -- that's REAL NEWS!"
Her diet doesn't interest me either.
This concerns me:
Dallas gay leaders OK Miers pick
The Dallas Voice ^ | 10/8/05 | David Webb
http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=6701
Dallas gay leaders OK Miers pick
Only known record of her stances on gay rights surfaces in lesbian’s garage
By David Webb
Staff Writer
President Bush on Monday nominated Dallas native Harriet Ellan Miers to the United States Supreme Court — turning the eyes of the nation on a 16-year-old document stored in the garage of longtime lesbian leader Louise Young. Bush named Miers, the White House counsel, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Miers, formerly a prominent Dallas lawyer and a past president of the State Bar of Tex-as, is a longtime, close associate of Bush’s. She has no prior experience as a judge.
When she heard the news of Bush’s nomination, Young re-membered that Miers had appeared before the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition’s screening committee when Miers ran for the Dallas City Council in 1989. The politician did not ask for the political coalition’s endorsement, but she filled out the questionnaire and spoke to the group.
Rummaging through the storage boxes that she had moved from Dallas to Vermont and back, Young found the document. Its existence has now been reported by virtually every news organization in the country. Young said that she fielded numerous calls from the media this week.
“I think I’ve talked to just about everybody,” Young said. “It’s been kind of wild.”
Young said she kept all of the records from the coalition, which eventually merged with the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, because to do otherwise “would be like throwing away our history,” she said.
Her foresight apparently paid off.
“It’s interesting that the only paper trail on her stand on gay rights was in my garage,” Young said. “Isn’t that odd?”
Young said her recollection was that Miers appeared uncomfortable when she appeared before the political coalition’s members.
“I say that just because of her demeanor,” Young said. “She didn’t want our endorsement, but on the other hand she was there. She was cordial and not hostile at all.” Young said some of Miers’ answers on the questionnaire appeared to contradict one another.
Although the candidate said she supported equal rights for gay and lesbian residents, she said that she would oppose efforts to overturn Texas’ sodomy law, which applied only to homosexuals. On another question, Miers said she thought the AIDS epidemic was the responsibility of the entire community and favored greater funding to fight it. Yet she failed to make a firm commitment to opposing discrimination based on HIV status, saying she would prefer that the Legislature address the issue. “It was kind of contradictory,” Young said. “Some of the answers were not good.”
Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said the questionnaire, which his organization distributed nationwide, lends hope that Miers would be a fair-minded justice if she is confirmed by the Senate. “It raises the possibility that she is more fair-minded than opponents are hoping,” Solomonese said in a press release. “We will be closely watching how the White House responds to this news, and it will be a good test of whether the extreme right wing has hijacked the process on nominating a Supreme Court justice.”
None of Dallas’ gay City Council members served at the same time as Miers. But they all said they have met her and respect her abilities and accomplishments. All said they would be comfortable with her appointment to the Supreme Court.
Chris Luna, a Dallas attorney, worked with Miers more closely than any of the other gay council members. She chaired the city’s Judicial Nominating Commission when he was a council member, Luna said.
“She is judicious, she listens to people, gets all of the facts, doesn’t jump to conclusions. Then she makes a decision,” he said.
Luna added that pinning down Miers’ positions on issues would be difficult because she typically keeps her opinions to herself.
“I think that is why she has been so successful, because she didn’t get way out there and prejudge and stake a claim,” Luna said. “She is flexible, she listens and she keeps her personal viewpoint in check so she will have more maneuverability and flexibility.”
An exception to that habit, aside from the questionnaire she provided to the Dallas gay rights group, came in the 1980s. The Washington Post reported that Miers told a friend that she believed that life begins at conception — and said she was opposed to abortion. The newspaper reported that she had attended a lecture at a Dallas evangelical church with Nathan Hecht, who is now a Texas Supreme Court justice, and expressed that opinion to him after the event.
Luna said he believes Miers is capable of change if she comes to realize she made a mistake.
“When she has made the wrong decision she has no problem in doing a 180 and saying ‘I’ve learned more, and now I understand more about the facts,’” Luna said.
Luna said that Miers has always been accepting of him. “She certainly knows I’m gay,” Luna said. “She wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for me to the Texas Bar Association.”
Former council member Craig Holcomb said Miers seemed comfortable when he and his partner encountered her at civic and political events.
“She was always very nice to us as a couple and did not seem to feel awkward or anything,” Holcomb said. Former council member Craig McDaniel said he also found Miers to be cordial. He said it will be difficult for anyone on the right or the left “to mobilize the masses” against Miers because she gets along well with many different types of people.
“A lot of the women in Dallas who have emerged as leaders have seemed to have that same type of personality,” McDaniel said. “They seem to have a comfortableness with lots of different situations and views.”
McDaniel said he is delighted that the president nominated Miers.
“This is as good as we would ever get out of a Republican administration,” McDaniel said.
William W. Waybourn, a former president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance who is president of Window Media, which owns and operates a group of gay newspapers, said he is also comfortable with the selection.
“She was always very nice and very cordial and friendly,” Waybourn said. “I don’t remember anything bad about her.” Waybourn said as a council member Miers had appointed some gay people to municipal boards and commissions, including gay Dallas attorney Don McCleary, whom she appointed to the Community Development Commission.
“I don’t think the right-wing Republicans are going to feel comfortable with her,” Waybourn said.
Political consultant Pat Cotton said Miers has always been viewed as a moderate. Miers impressed people because she is “very smart, quiet and does her homework,” Cotton said.
“I think she will do that as a Supreme Court justice and not let other people make her decisions for her,” Cotton said.
Cotton said she likes the idea that Miers has been a practicing lawyer, because the Supreme Court lacks that experience.
Cotton said she considers Miers’ nomination an “interesting one.”
She added that she believes Bush is confident about how Miers views the issues that are important to him.
“I think he was very deliberate and very careful,” Cotton said. “If she does change into someone with whom he is uncomfortable, he’ll be the most shocked of all.”
E-mail
webb@dallasvoice.com Harriet Miers
Like Bush, yes apparently they DO think alike ... Bush appointed MORE gays than Clinton!
Bush considers gay attorney for D.C. judgeship
Spagnoletti one of three candidates for Superior Court bench
A local commission charged with helping President Bush select judges to the D.C. Superior Court has named gay D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti as one of three candidates for a vacancy on the court’s bench. Spagnoletti, 42, a prosecutor for 13 years before Mayor Anthony Williams appoin...
- LOU CHIBBARO JR. September 23, 2005
http://www.washingtonblade.com/advancedSearch/results.cfm
More:
NATIONAL NEWS: Roberts helped gays win landmark case
Gay groups unimpressed with nominee's help in Romer vs. Evans
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. provided significant help to gay activists in a 1996 landmark Supreme Court case protecting gays from discrimination based upon their sexual orientation, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. At the time, Roberts was a lawyer specializing in appellate wo...
- LOU CHIBBARO JR.and EARTHA JANE MELZER July 29, 2005
Joseph O’Neill, the gay doctor and AIDS expert who has served since August 2003 as deputy coordinator of the State Department’s global AIDS office, is returning to the White House this week to work on domestic AIDS programs, a State Department spokesperson said.
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2005/4-22/news/national/oneill.cfm
Bush and Miers are no stranger to being empathetic to homosexuals. The last thing a conservative person needs is a PRO gay individual on the bench. As for abortion ... who knows where she stands ... sometimes she's for it and other times she is against it - guess it depends on which way the wind is blowing. I found the best place to look is sites that I find repugnant such as the Washington Blade to see what why the opposition is so GIDDY over Miers potential nomination. I wouldn't trust Bush as far as I can throw a house. His track record on appointing perverts leads me to doubt his judgment.
"If Callahan and Miers were the only choices, I'd go with unknown Miers too."
The problem is THAT is not the situation.
Bush needs to get out more. He had MANY candidates available to him. Instead he's trying to be sly and chose one with a questionable paper trail and a questionable past ... he lacks GUTS. He expects you to blindly trust him. I don't blindly trust ANY fallible mortal and certainly not Bush with his highly questionable past appointees.
I still admire Bush for his stance on Iraq. That is the right action to take but THIS is a slap in the face. I require a SOLID conservative with an open book track record; not games. He has NOT earned MY trust on his "appointees" and certainly NOT on Meirs. Conservatives cannot afford to have a liberal in drag on the bench - too many others are more qualified by leaps and bounds. See #174.
If you want to call me a "bigot" or a "hate monger" go right ahead.
I DO discriminate.
Absolutely!
There is nothing RIGHT about being a homosexual and abortion is wrong. I discriminate between right and wrong. Miers is a risky person. I prefer a solid steady hand for a U.S. Supreme Court nominees - not Meirs with a VERY questionable past. His conservative base, which I am, deserves better than a stealth candidate where you really don't know where they stand NOW but you do know what position they took earlier. She flip flops too much. She'll probably get confirmed and turn out to be more of a "moderate" than O'Connor.