Then why is such a vocal minority willing to throw stones at the President's nominee before the hearings?
Do they have a secret death wish and hope to be killed by an errant stone flung by one of their fellow "revolutionaries"*?
*Frum likened this to an uprising.
It would have been smarter for these pundits to have written to Bush privately about their objections to Miers.
"Then why is such a vocal minority willing to throw stones at the President's nominee before the hearings?"
Because despite the fanfare and bluster, she will be confirmed, the hearings are meaningless (most of the Dems will vote for her). She should never have been up there in the first place.
"a vocal minority"....lmao , nearly 50% according to Gallop, that is the death knell...Terrrible selection.
Perhaps because we don't expect to learn anything relevant about Ms. Miers during the hearings. Like Ginsburg and Roberts she will (rightly) refuse to answer any questions which reveal how she might rule on matters that come before the court and by the time the hearings are over we will still be in the exact same position we are now. We will have to trust the President as to whether or not her judicial philosophy is conservative or more importantly originalist.
As another poster correctly pointed out, if the hearings were revealing, how did we get Souter?
The President's political appointments lately have been highly suspect. Remember his appointment of Bernard Kerick who turned out to be just short of a criminal to head Homeland Security? And more recently we get Julie Myers heading ICE and she has no discernible qualifications. And then there is Mike Brown at FEMA. And Alberto "the illegals are otherwise law abiding citizens" Gonzalez as Attorney General. In his first term the President appointed a really strong team. His second term appointments have been weak and have shown rather poor judgment tainted by undeniable cronyism.
I am not inclined to blindly trust the President. I won't speak for others but I want the nomination derailed (withdrawn or voted down) and I think it is more likely to happen if we raise hell before the hearings then if we wait until they happen and we have learned nothing that we don't already know. I rather doubt I'll succeed but at least if there is yet another Supreme Court nomination by President Bush I have a feeling he is not going to be anxious to repeat this mistake and that in itself is worthwhile.