The Harriet Miers I Know

New York Times ^ | October 14, 2005 | MATTHEW SCULLY

[G.Mason]

October 14, 2005

Op-Ed Contributor

The Harriet Miers I Know

By MATTHEW SCULLY

Los Angeles

WHITE House speechwriters first learned the name Harriet Miers in January 2001, when drafts started reappearing full of corrections, instructions and particularly annoying requests for factual substantiation. In the campaign, life had been simpler, the editing and fact-checking a little more casual. Now the old ways wouldn't do anymore because "Harriet said" this or "Harriet said" that. Who was this woman, and could the staff secretary please confine herself to secretarial duties?

We had a few things to learn about the job of the staff secretary - the person who controls all paper passing through the Oval Office - and above all about the caliber of the woman behind the editing. And now that fellow conservatives in Washington are asking variations of the same question about President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court - Who is this "crony," "cipher," "hack," "functionary" or, as my former speechwriting colleague David Frum has called her, this "petty bureaucrat"? - I think I can help with the answer.

When you know Harriet Miers, it's funny to think of her as the subject of such controversy. Yet already her notoriety is such that even the most innocent of virtues can be thrown back at her as inadequate - "not even second-rate," as a National Review Online posting said, "but third-rate." She's a detail person. Diligent and dependable. Honest, kind, modest, devout and all that. A real mediocrity.

[Frank T]

Wow. Someone at the New York Times thinks conservatives should back Miers.

[Bahbah]

Harriet Miers, in everything she does, gives high attention to detail. And the trait came in handy with drafts of presidential speeches, in which she routinely exposed weak arguments, bogus statistics and claims inconsistent with previous remarks long forgotten by the rest of us. If one speech declared X "our most urgent domestic priority," and another speech seven months earlier had said it was Y, it would be Harriet Miers alone who noted the contradiction.

Harriet is a FReeper????

[Dane]

This guy worked in the Bush administration and his article was published in the New York Times.

[Rudder]

Knowing little about Harriet, it's hard to oppose or support her. But, whoever has the job to sell her to Americans is asleep at the switch.

[G.Mason]

"Harriet is a FReeper????"

LOL!

Obviously a controversial one, at that. ;)

[elli1]

Wow. Someone at the New York Times thinks conservatives should back Miers.

More like 'Another Bush White House Speechwriter Weighs in on Miers'. Frum worked there for 13 months. This guy worked there for four years.

[G.Mason]

"Knowing little about Harriet, it's hard to oppose or support her. But, whoever has the job to sell her to Americans is asleep at the switch."

Agreed.

The Whitehouse has shown that it is better, sometimes, to say nothing.

[GarySpFc]

Although it is conceivable that President Bush has had his fill of advice from overreaching pundits, that is not why he chose Harriet Miers. Maybe he didn't want somebody who had been planning for 20 years for a place on the Supreme Court. Maybe he has looked around every so often and noticed that the least assuming person in the room was also the most capable and discerning. Or maybe he remembered how the hardest-working person in the White House found time to prepare the will of a terminally ill 27-year-old colleague, and to spend nights and mornings staying with her and praying with her.

-----
Does this sound like a Proverbs 31 lady, or someone who will change once she has been on the court 3 or 4 years? This lady is no Souter.

[G.Mason]

"Wow. Someone at the New York Times thinks conservatives should back Miers."

What is that saying about politics makes for strange bedfellows?

[G.Mason]

"Although it is conceivable that President Bush has had his fill of advice ..."

Well stated.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Shut up! We don't want facts! It's much easier to bash Bush and Miers! Keep that crap to yourself!

[Lead Moderator]

n/p ;)

[Bahbah]

This is a great article and I didn't want it to slip under your radar.

[OldFriend]

Thanks, imagine a person dedicated to the FACTS and not hyperbole and outright truth rather than spin.

Can't have that now can we?

Wonder how many times Frum got his speeches kicked back to him for further revision.

[Bahbah]

Wonder how many times Frum got his speeches kicked back to him for further revision.

I couldn't help wondering the exact same thing. Suppose little Frummie got his fingers slapped for some big boo boos and is hitting back like the little snot that he is?

[xzins]

The president I voted for deserves my support on this. The woman he nominated deserves a fair hearing before the committee. She also deserves to get at least one word out of her mouth before being condemned.

I am willing to be loyal and to be fair.

I will make up my mind at the hearings.