Posted on 10/24/2005 12:52:20 PM PDT by Frank T
When the Harriett Miers was first announced, I noted that the common thread between her and John Roberts was that they were both likely to uphold the use of executive power in the War on Terror, having both served faithfully in the Executive branch. I'm currently reading Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, and I now note another (not unrelated) common thread: they both have strong ties to the Bush family. Roberts served as Deputy SG for Bush senior, and was nominated, though not confirmed to the D.C. Circuit by him. And he was of course later nominated and confirmed by W. Miers, of course, is infamously a Bush crony. The authors of Right Nation point out that loyalty and cronyism are Bush family trademarks. Indeed, W. made his fortune through oil company cronyism, and Bush Senior weeded out all Reaganites from the White House in favor of Bush hangers-ons (including apolitical family friends from Texas).
The Miers fiasco presents an opportunity for conservatives to put a stop to the Bushes' preference for cronyism and loyalty over principles, a particularly bad preference when it comes to the Supreme Court. The obvious successor to Ms. Miers, when her nomination is ulimately withdrawn or defeated, is Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit. He's clearly one of the leading judges in the country, with vast experience in antitrust law, admintrative law, constitutional law, and more. His marijuana incident is now more than twenty years in the past, and no longer seems disqualifying in any event, given subsequent revelations ("I didn't inhale" and whatnot).
Most important, Ginsburg (who is still only sixty) is not a Bush crony or loyalist, and can be counted on as a strong and independent voice on the Court. And conservatives would rally around: if he was good enough for Ronald Reagan, surely he's good enough for the Bush Adminstration.
UPDATE: If not Ginsburg, I'll settle for other brilliant, not-age-disqualified Reaganites, including Danny Boggs, Frank Easterbrook, and Alex Kozinski. Anyone noticed that except for J. Harvey Wilkinson, no Reagan appointees seem to have made any of the circulated "short lists?"
Let's hope we've learned our lesson when Jeb comes a knockin'.
BTW, hell will freeze over before GWB nominates a libertarian for the supreme court. I think he would sooner put up another RUTH Ginsburg, than a Doug Ginsburg.
I don't think "crone-ism" is a valid term. There is nothing wrong with nominating someone you know and trust... indeed that seems the best bet.
However, nominating someone that isn't qualified is a different story.
I am sick of the people saying, Just Wait. For what? You do realize that by the time anyone is proven right or wrong, it will be too late to do anything about it?
From your keyboard to God's ears.
For the confirmation process in the Senate; that's where the whole country finds out who Harriet Miers really is and whether or not she's qualified for the job. It's also when our elected representatives decide to confirm her or not.
Personally, I'll take a moral, religious Justice who sees abortion as unlawful killing over a 'moderate' Justice who can please every one, write scintillating thesis' on Constitutional law, but who will cave under pressure when Roe v. Wade comes around again. I don't think America will ever again be 'blessed' by God as she once was if abortion continues to be the law of the land. It isn't people who run the world after all, it's God.
"Personally, I'll take a moral, religious Justice who sees abortion as unlawful killing over a 'moderate' Justice who..."
You appear to know something the rest of us don't know. The president never presented her as such, so I have no reason to believe it's true.
Actually he did present her as such, and came as close to saying she'll help overthrow Roe as he could possibly do without committing political suicide. If you recall, the Demorats were up in arms when the President said:
"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers, part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
(Her religion, by the way, utterly rejects abortion).
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