[SevenMinusOne]

Sowell - The man always has the smartest comments and rationale - Regardless of the topic - Truly a national treasure -

[Burr5]

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/tonysnow/2005/10/07/159692.html



http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/10/07/159683.html


maybe THAT will work

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Before the Bushbots get too excited, they might check the archives of both these men. They absolutely do not think Bush is perfect.

[Alia]

:)... What I find interesting? How the data about an "unkown" is gradually, incrementally, finding its way to the surface! I'd say there's lots of bloodletting going on with this nomination. lol. A drip at a time, a brawl, then more data.. another brawl... more data.. Miss Miers may be confirmed in a fastest-on-record time - as her record, as it emerges, drip, drip, drip is being vetted... at each new revelation..EVERYWHERE.

What a new and exciting way to do a pre-confirmation hearing. Every one watching the "actual" confirmation hearings are probably going to show up with tomatoes to throw at the Sens who ask, weeks-ago-publically-vetted questions. "Get on with it, Stupid!" Might be the rallying cry from.. we, the people...

[Squeako]

Bush-Bots vs Bash-Bots.

Let's get ready to rummmmmblllllllle!!!

[Mr Ramsbotham]

I'm in full agreement with Sowell. If anyone is to blame for the weakness of this nomination, it's the RINOs in the Senate. In fact, one could well come up with an acronym like MINO, meaning, Majority in Name Only, to describe what's going on in that legislative body. If this were poker, Bush would be holding a pair of sevens, not the royal flush that everyone presumes he has.

[FreeRep]

Miers has been with him through every step of his presidency, she will be great at issues of national security.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the post, links. Interesting.

[Generic_Login_1787]

Elites hate the nomination. Miers, in contrast to the polymath John Roberts, has little direct experience with constitutional law, and may know less about cases and precedents than such potential inquisitors as Sens. Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer. She hasn't spent time on the federal bench. She hasn't written sage articles for prestigious law reviews. She has little conventional pedigree -- and that drives the local elites nuts. ...

... the Miers nomination highlights George Bush's delicious disdain for the Beltway culture. One can imagine his chortling with delight upon finding a way to irritate worthies of both parties.

Let's stop for a second and ask ourselves why we as conservatives hate "elites."

I always thought it was because we see "elites" as venal, wanton and everything a conservative might find repellant. They live lives of abstraction and detachment, ridicule the common man and look down their nose at anyone without the superficial trappings of success that they have attained but not necessarily earned. If "ideas have consequences," those consequences do not apply to elites.

Are you prepared to call our best pundits venal, disdainful and out of touch? Are you prepared to write them off for good?

Perhaps first you should explain what qualifies Harriet Miers for the job of interpreting constitutional law in ways that might escape a fancy-pants polymath who's studied it most of his or her adult life.

Anything?

Oh, right. Voting the "right way," per Sowell's column. What constitutes voting the "right way" if you don't have something solid like a grasp of constitutional law to fall back on? Isn't that just voting your conscience? What "seems" right? Isn't that just a penumbra that emanates right instead of left?

Aren't conservatives supposed to value the elite, adjective, as opposed to the elite, noun? The first-rate, the best of the best, the truly as opposed to superficially expert?

The unspoken attitude in all of this is, "We who have done the thinking approve of Miers because she can do our work. Even if she has not done the thinking we have, she is on our side. A proxy. A useful cog."

If we stoop to denigrating the elite, adjective, while we play the role of elite, noun, does that make us any better than Al Sharpton?

I distrust elites because I believe there is more than one way to get expertise. I am a conservative because I believe in a meritocracy and value expertise. I want a Supreme Court nominee who is qualified, not connected.

[hershey]

It's very simple here in MA.. All we have to do is wait to see what our senators (Fat Teddy and John Heinz-Kerry), think about Harriet and then take the opposite view. Her being outted as a Christian (Horrors!), should be enough for the dems to reach for garlic and a wooden stake and mallet, but who knows.

[counterpunch]

The people shilling for the administration on this one can't answer the primary criticism: Miers is not the best person for the job. Period. They keep trying to convince us that we should trust Bush because he's appointed conservatives elsewhere. But he's also appointed liberals. They tell us she's the right pick because she's an Evangelical, a woman, a victim, a Bush pal. Everything BUT what we want to hear: a conservative Constitutional scholar. Even if Miers turns out to be Clarence Thomas in a skirt, it doesn't matter. We want more than just another vote. We want a leading conservative legal mind. It's not merely the quantity of the votes we care about, but also the quality of the opinions.

There are countless people in the conservative judicial movement who have been working in the trenches for decades for this moment. Bush's big mistake was to try to intermix the different factions of his base. He stuck a religious conservative figure where he should have showed deference to the conservative judicial establishment.

[Hoodat]

Dr. Sowell proves once again his brilliance. Maybe we can get him to replace Greenspan as Fed Chairman.