The Washington Post had an opinion piece today noting that the court would now have two business-oriented justices (Miers and Roberts). The interesting thing was that, in the entire opinion, it was clear that the writer accepted as a given that the business community, and her peers, all found Miers to be extremely bright and capable, and fully expected her to be able to handle the rigors of being a supreme court justice.
It's been a couple of weeks, and I'm amazed that people still believe that a person with the accomplishments of Miers could be incompetent or mediocre.
And as I tell my children -- you cannot control what other people do, you can only control your reaction to it. Bush did what he did, but it was WE who chose to react the way we did, it was WE who divided on the issue instead of trying to talk through it.
And I am now convinced that a sizeable number of the opposition WANTED this fight, because they are tired of a LOT of stuff Bush is doing and they wanted an excuse to get out and pound him and the rest of the party.
I can't speak for others, but I for one did not want a fight. I had blithely assumed Bush would make a good pick. I thought Roberts was a good pick from the start. When W picked Miers I was surprised and depressed. The more I learn about her, the less hope I have that she will be a quality consistent conservative justice.
I must admit that W picking Miers is a tipping point of sorts. The other issues that rankled me - deficits, no vetos of pork, campaign finance nonsense, the bloated spendthrift perscription drug plan, Marshal Plan for NO etc, I repressed because of the WOT, taxes, and judges. W knocked away one of my three pillars of support.
I personally don't know anyone pleased or happy about the Miers pick (I work in a white collar setting). Even if W antagonized only a few million conservatives it can really hurt in this 51:49 body politic.
Having worked for a very large corporation, and watch the senior management of this multi-billion dollar organization drive it into the ground, I find it easy to believe that a real bozo could have been promoted to the jobs Miers held. Attention to details, and getting things done are administrative staff pluses, that's not what you look for for senior leadership, or analysis positions.