Another urban legend digged out, I guess. Looks like it first caromed off of no less than Gore himself.
P.S. Bash... whatta name for a commentator
I believe we have been misled. I have been asking and searching for any evidence that Bush ever "promised to appoint judges in the mold of Scalia and Thomas." To date nothing has turned up. Bush has very clearly stated several times what he looks for in a nominee to the bench. I don't believe he has ever said his nominee's would be in the mold of Thomas or Scalia.
John Roberts said he would be the same, and his prior decisions who he means it. I suggest, as many others have said, to wait for the hearings on Miers to see whether she is in the Scalia-Thomas mold.
Congressman Billybob
Of course we've been misled. By the media, who wanted to use it as a point against the President. By the pundits who ran with it because they wanted to believe it and by the WH who didn't deny the claim because it suited their purpose as well.
>>>Have we been misled, and if so, by whom?
Yes, and the media.
And we're also being mislead by certain conservatives who are p*ssed that Bush has not appointed a conservatvie version of Souter.
Jim, I'm amused by the source. I'm not discounting the article, you understand. I'm just amused by where it's coming from.
FYI, MM is the left wing version of MRC. Large grains of salt advised.
It looks like we mislead ourselves. We heard what we wanted to hear.
I'm am very thankful that Bush is our President and not Gore or Kerry, even if our vote was based on our misunderstanding of Bush's appreciation of Scalia and Thomas as a promise to appoint SCOTUS justices in their mold.
I think it's unfair to prejudge this woman before she has a fair hearing. The kind of vitriolic insults she has suffered in the past two weeks is disgraceful IMO.
PLEASE tell me this is satire, and I missed that fact.
I was at one of the W pre-election rallies, and heard the line:
"I will appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas".
The crowd, of course, went nuts.
But, was he just telling us what we wanted to hear? Was Dubya - gasp! - just another Politician playing to the crowd? (Yup).
This is no "urban myth". He said it at EVERY rally, in EVERY city.
Man, the backpedalling by this administration is sickening. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that "Slick Willy" was back in office..("depends on what you mean by the word 'IS'"). Guess we're now debating.."depends on what you mean by 'in the mold of'".
Sickening.
Or Thomas, right? I think that Scalia himself has said that he probably couldn't get confirmed today. Miers is more like Thomas.
And damn the torpedoes...flank speed ahead to the hearings.
At the time he was nominated, I said John Roberts is no Antonin Scalia. The same can be said for Harreit Miers. There has been endless speculation as to why PresBush nominated Roberts and Miers. For the most part, Bush`s nominees to the lower courts have been made up of solid conservatives. I don't believe Bush has misled conservatives. That would be a foolish move and Bush isn't a foolish person. It's obvious that the political environment in WashDC and personal circumstances of possible nominees have played a big factor in exactly who Bush was willing to go with. While Bush hasn't been the conservative, that most conservatives wanted, we need to respect his judgement on both Roberts and Miers and hope for the best.
I find it amazing that Media Matters can write so much about so little.
I don't know, Jim, but I do know the Pres said "strict constructionist" was his target. I've heard that more than once and can remember how the president pronounces constructionist.
In any case, even if he did say Scalia, he knows Miers and we don't, so she might well be both a constructionist and a Scalia wannabe.
He didn't promise that we'd be able to prove it to every nitpickin' critic in America prior to the nominee getting to say a word or two in his/her own defense.
Okay, let's say Bush didn't make the promise. Who the HECK is this guy we've worked so hard to elected, then? What brand of "conservative" wouldn't nominate another Scalia or Thomas?
I think it's more important that SC justices be strict constructionists who won't legislate from the bench than that they be clones of any individual person.
I'm no expert on Miers, but there some fairly important people out there who are less than enthused with this selection.
In general, I would say that it would have been far better for a person to have been nominated that the conservatives could join in unity behind. The herding cats theory aside, a majority of conservatives should be able to back this president's selection. Other than the die-hard Bush supporter, I'm not getting the impression that conservatives are behind this appointment.
The long term conservative position has been that if no other reasion existed, Bush was most importantly going to change the makeup of the court. He was going to appoint rock solid conservatives to the SCOTUS.
I don't have to be an expert to question whether Miers is a rock solid conservative. I just don't get that impression, when confronted with her past. Her past legal and political activities are about all we have to go on, since she has not been prolific and hasn't sat as a judge.
Have we been misled. If the president truly thinks she's conservative, no. Have we been let down? Possibly so.
I cannot support Miers' nomination over a number of folks out there with proven track records. Miers is who Bush chose for the SCOTUS. I am fairly confident he will push this nomination as far as he can. I would think less of him if he didn't.
I do not think this will wind up well, but I've been wrong before.
For the superlative things that Bush as done as President, it's sad to know that at this point in time, his minuses are poised to be every bit as prominent as his pluses.
If Harriet Miers turns out to be another Souter, President Bush will have missed what some thought was his one true calling.
The left is on a rampage judicialy. What they couldn't accomplish at the polls, the are trying to achieve by judicial fiat. The SCOTUS is our last defense against that. Failing to make it as sound with regard to Constitutional law as it could be, could well be fatal to a number of the issues conservatives hold dear.