Posted on 10/14/2005 1:53:07 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has splintered President Bush's base and triggered a growing demand from his own supporters to withdraw her nomination.
"What a stupid, stupid mistake," said Mark W. Smith, a member of the conservative Federalist Society who has actively supported Mr. Bush but wants to see the nomination withdrawn. "You cannot fix this for 25 years."
Conservatives have stuck with Mr. Bush through the bloodiest and gloomiest days of the war in Iraq, held firm as administration officials are investigated for revealing a CIA operative's identity and given him a pass on the galloping federal spending. But blowing the historic opportunity to replace a swing vote on the Supreme Court is unforgivable, conservatives say.
"An awful lot of people hung in on the administration's coalition despite being troubled by the prolific spending, the war and everything else," said Paul W. Weyrich, a leader in the conservative movement. "The one thing they were certain of was that Bush would give us outstanding jurists."
Many conservative columnists and commentators -- including Peggy Noonan, the Reagan speechwriter who worked on Mr. Bush's re-election campaign -- have called on Mr. Bush to rescind Miss Miers' nomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Uh, maybe because many of the people on their lists have actually ruled on cases, written lengthy opinions, given speeches and written columns about their deeply held originalist/conservative judicial philosophy.
Leonard A. Leo, who took a leave from the Federalist Society to help the White House get nominees confirmed, said he finds the criticism from Congress odd.
"To the extent that there is a problem here, a good portion of it dates back to the spring when Senate leadership failed -- failed -- to achieve filibuster reform," he said. "That was the decisive moment in this fight."
Many conservatives wanted Senate Republicans to push through a ban on judicial filibusters earlier this year.
Instead, a renegade group of 14 senators -- seven Democrats and seven Republicans -- signed a last-minute deal to avoid what had come to be known as the "nuclear option" for its propensity to create caustic fallout in the chamber.
"I find it highly ironic that many of the same conservatives criticizing the president's nominee were nowhere to be found when it came time to pull the trigger on filibuster reform," said Mr. Leo, adding that he wholeheartedly supports the Miers nomination. "If I'm the president, I wouldn't have a high level of confidence that my boys in the Senate can get the job done."
This David Broder interview with Leo ought to be useful to some:
It's too soon to judge this nomination. But my guess is that, in the end, it is the liberals who will have the most misgivings about Miers. I came to that conclusion after a breakfast interview with Leonard Leo, who is on leave as executive vice president of the Federalist Society to work with the White House on judicial confirmation issues.The Federalist Society, an organization of conservative lawyers, has been influential in staffing the Bush administration and recommending candidates for the federal bench. Leo came late to the breakfast from a conference call, in which he was attempting to quash the arguments other conservative leaders were making against Miers.
He spoke as one who has known her for well over a decade and joined her in a battle to get the American Bar Association to rescind its resolution endorsing Roe v. Wade, the decision establishing a right to abortion.
The first thing Leo said was that Miers' statement accepting the nomination from Bush was significant to him. "It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the Founders' vision of the proper role of the courts in our society," she said, "and to help ensure that the courts meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and the Constitution."
"When she talked about 'the Founders' vision' and used the word 'strictly,' "Leo said, "I thought, Robert Bork," Ronald Reagan's Supreme Court pick rejected by the Senate after a bitter fight. "She didn't have to go there. She could simply have said, 'Judges should not legislate from the bench.' But she chose those words."
As for the fight within the bar association, Leo said that he and Miers and their allies argued that it was "inappropriate" for the organization to endorse Roe "when there are doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying legal doctrine."
Was she opposed to the Roe decision? I asked. "That was not the issue. The only way to fight this within the ABA was to talk about the process" by which the endorsement was made. "It took a lot of courage to be out front on that issue" within the bar association, "especially for a woman." He said Miers is "well-regarded by anti-abortion leaders in Dallas" and has written a check to at least one such group.
Finally, I asked him to compare Miers to the justice she would be replacing, if confirmed. Unlike O'Connor, he said, "she believes in legal rules, that law has a content to it. She is not one who would vacillate back and forth in a world of murky standards, which is how I see Justice O'Connor."
Maybe that's what the president meant when he said he was confident she "won't change."
Deeper down in this story, it mentions how the White House has been showcasing Miers' religious beliefs in what has turned out to be an insulting attempt to woo conservatives.
Is all this "church chat" from the White House a signal that Miers would rule FOR the religious side and AGAINST the states-rights side of the Oregon assisted suicide case that may be re-argued at the Supreme Court if Miers replaces O'Connor? I think (or at least hope) even Clarence Thomas may end up on the states-rights side.
Leonard Leo in on the White House payroll.
Weyrich. Noonan. Malkin. Limbaugh. Coulter. Krauthammer. Ingraham. Goldberg. Schlafly. Viguerie. Frum. Etcetera, ad infinitum.
Oh, yeah. No "real" conservatives anywhere in that bunch, by golly. Obvious DU moles, the whole danged lot of 'em! < /sarcasm>
Ditto on that! STAY THE COURSE MR PRESIDENT!! YOU ARE RIGHT.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Tip on your signature - its 'towing' =]
All future nominees are going to be asked about their religion and have it held against them if they are Christian and it will be called "The Miers Rule."
I'm afraid you're right. It's disturbing how the White House started playing up her religion just weeks after not wanting Roberts' religion to be a factor at all. But I guess it's also disturbing that Bush nominated his own lawyer for the U.S. Supreme Court right after the mess with his FEMA crony. It's like Bush has suffered a complete loss of short-term memory.
Well, golly gosh, maybe we ought to call Ronnie Earle to see if we can get him indicted in Texas.
Better call the Federalist Society. Let them know their executive vice president is a partisan liar.
Or, are you saying something different?
LOL, and what "course" would that be? The Roberts course? The Miers course? The blank-slate course? The avoid-a-fight-at-all-costs course? The don't-offend-Ted-Kennedy course? The crony course? Hey, how about the Scalia/Thomas course we heard about on the campaign trail?
And George Will is on ABC's and the Washignton Post's payroll.
To bring the golf analogy full circle... Would Harriet Miers be allowed to use a golf cart because of her age and the Americans with Disabilities Act? All that walking can make an old lady tired, you know.
Seriously, let's remember that Scalia and Thomas were the only two Supreme Court justices to dissent in the Casey Martin-PGA golf cart case. How would Harriet Miers have ruled in that case? We have no idea. However, I'm sure a number of the well-qualified people on the Federalist Society lists would've ruled with Scalia and Thomas, despite all the public sympathy that was on Casey Martin's side.
The course which gets us another Conservative Justice on the Supreme Court. Her name is Harriet Miers.
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