I was an anti-anti-Miers man and am now a pro Alito man. What bothers me is how are Miers opponents going to tell the Dem's that he deserves an up or down vote without being laughed out of punditry.
Cry Me a River, Hugh
Posted by: Dale Franks on Thursday, October 27, 2005As far as the up-or-down vote thing goes, one notes that the problem conservatives had with the up-or-down vote requirement was that the Democrats were denying Senate votes on judicial nominees who had already been vetted, and reported out of the Judiciary Committee. At no point in time has the issue been that every presidential nominee, no matter how unqualified, must be accepted without dissent from the moment of nomination. Nor has the issue ever been that the president's supporters must remain silent to allow any nominee, regardless of qualifications, to complete the nomination process. The whole point of the argument was that qualified nominees, whose nominations were before the Senate, were refused a vote by senators of the opposing party. Conflating that with pundits who have nothing whatsoever to do with the nomination of confirmation process, and who merely express their opinions about the quality of a nominee, is either intentionally intellectually dishonest, or a sign of an sad inability to reason properly.
Miers would have received an up or down vote if she had not withdrawn her own nomination. I don't see any logical inconsistency. I do notice that this seems to be the Dems talking point though.
What on earth are you talking about? Miers voluntarily withdrew her own nomination prior to hearings. We never got to the point of an up or down vote.
The up or down vote principle is intact and will be used in the Alito hearings. Unless, of course, he were to voluntarily withdraw his nomination as well. I hope that doesn't happen. Unlike Miers, he seems to be fully competent.
For one, convincing a nominee to withdraw from consideration isn't at odds with the Constitution, as is the Democrat filibuster game.
"What bothers me is how are Miers opponents going to tell the Dem's that he deserves an up or down vote without being laughed out of punditry."
I imagine that if he starts saying that "anti-abortion protesters can be likened to domestic terrorists" as Miers did, or saying that his personal heros are leftist feminists, as Miers said, and if he had no background in the Constitution or was never on the bench, we'd protest him, also..
Ed