No more benefit of the doubt

The American Conservative Union ^ | October 17, 2005 | David A. Keene

[trubluolyguy]

#5

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Post of the day.

[Urbane_Guerilla]

The President gets enormous credit for the WOT, altho I hesitate to call that a specifically "conservative" position.

BTW, I think part of the dynamic in this Miers thing, is that the President has been so unfairly attacked by liberals and leftists, to the point of hateful absurdity, that some conservatives feel protective of him regardless of what he does.

[gondramB]

"Doesn't Bush get another go if we block Miers? How does blocking her mean that he gets no more chances to nominate a judge?"


Well, hopefully no one is planning on actually blocking her until we hear what she has to say. But yes, he gets another chance if that happens.

[trubluolyguy]

Please go to HH's site to get the context and to verify HH's opinion that the President "leads the conservative movement ...."

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Once again;

Bush has as much in common with conservative policy as the moon has with cheese.

[mrsmith]

"the administration has gone about trying to demonize conservatives who have raised questions about Ms. Miers. It began from day one to attack personally the motives, loyalty and judgment of anyone who questioned the wisdom of the nomination."

Why lie like this?

Does he think people will believe him?

[wmfights]

"The President gets enormous credit for the WOT, altho I hesitate to call that a specifically "conservative" position"

I can agree, but when the libs were in power they thought it was a law enforcement issue.

As far as defending Bush no matter what I can't think of anything more defeatist. It appears more and more that he has lost touch with his base and prefers the company of the blue blooded elitist's.

[skr]

Good point.

[pickrell]

"..Well, the reason I have always given for letting Bush get away with these questionable activities is that he needed to do it in order to get the really important things done, like making good judicial appointments. That was my bottom line. Now that he has nominated a doubtfully conservative, undistinguished and almost unknown second-rater for the Supreme Court, it puts everything else into question too. We all paid a lot one way or another to get to this point, and we don't appreciate getting kicked in the teeth just as the goal is within reach..."

The above statement may be the most accurate summation of the state of the party base that I have heard yet. The only improvement possible would be to add to the first sentence the additional task of winning the war on terrorism. Well stated, Cicero...

[Cicero]

I find it hard to believe that she is irrevocably opposed to the exploitation of eminent domain.

Likely not. Eminent domain is generally used by the powers that be--politicians, lawyers, and crooked businesses--against the little guy, and she has spent her whole life working for the powers that be. The usual way people like that assuage their consciences is to throw the little guy a few bones, courtesy of the taxpayers, which takes us even further from constitutional justice.

[Cboldt]

How would you feel about an 8 person supreme court where the next President has an immediate chance to name a justice?

You mean if Harriet Miers loses confirmation, we get to elect a new President?

That sure changes the calculus.

[Cboldt]

It began from day one to attack personally the motives, loyalty and judgment of anyone who questioned the wisdom of the nomination.

You ask a simple question and get totally ripped apart? Something is NOT right here.

kitty killer

[Cicero]

Thank you. I agree that the War on Terror is another top priority. The court is still out on how Bush will measure up to that. He started out splendidly, and he has continued to do good work in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I'm a bit nervous about his waiting so long for the obvious next moves of dealing with Syria and Iran.

I have been willing to wait for what he considers the right moment, as long as he keeps my trust. But the way things have been going for the past few weeks I am less sure than I was that that such trust is justified.

Moreover, Bush can't press forward with the War on Terror unless he has support, and I'm afraid he has damaged that support and confidence needlessly. Not the damage from Katrina, which was nothing but media lies that will fade away, but the Miers provocation, which is his own doing and which will not fade away at all if he doesn't change course very soon.

[gondramB]

" You mean if Harriet Miers loses confirmation, we get to elect a new President?

That sure changes the calculus."

Actually I meant that the kind of conservative the President's critics are asking for might have stalled the confirmation process so long that the seat was still open in 2008.

[ARCADIA]

A good lawyer must be an EXTREMELY articulate person verbally and in writing.

The Supreme Court has neither the military, nor the purse, with which to set policy. Their only instrument of power is their ability to persuade. Lose that and we will slip into a lawless anarchist state.

[curiosity]

There is no doubt for which to give the president a benefit. Miers is just plain not qualified. Period.

[gondramB]

You think that being one of the 100 best lawyers in the country is not sufficient?

Does the person have to be a judge already?

[curiosity]

You think that being one of the 100 best lawyers in the country is not sufficient?

Where did you get that figure from? I have serious doubts about it.

Does the person have to be a judge already?

No, but she should have extensive experience with constitutional law. As far as I can know, she has next to none.

[TheForceOfOne]

This is not an enormously popular President

You keep telling yourself that and maybe if you wish just hard enough you'll wake up tomorrow and John Kerry will be president.

[gondramB]

Well, I hate to back down so quickly... but it's important to admit mistakes.

I said she was a 100 lawyer, information I got from President Bush.

But in looking for a link to give you, I found that she was actually ranked one of the top 100 most influential lawyers.

To me that is different. Not enough to call the President a liar but it is enough to make the ranking less important in my opinion.

I'm sorry if my post was misleading.

http://archive.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/10/04/toplawyers/

http://volokh.com/posts/1128789544.shtml

http://keyetv.com/topstories/topstories_story_281121428.html

[DoctorMichael]

This Administration has had a horrible PR organization and its starting to catch up with it.