It’s difficult to have much of an initial reaction to President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court, because not that much is known about her — though that fact raises concerns about her qualifications. Miers is Bush’s White House counsel and was an accomplished corporate attorney in Texas. However, she has never served as a judge and, for a Supreme Court nominee, has a relatively thin resume. That doesn’t necessarily make her unqualified for the high court, but it raises the question: Why her?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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37 Comments
Because, as she told David From, she thinks that George W. Bush “is the most brilliant man she has ever met.”
Sorry, that’s David ‘Frum.’ My bad.
Because Bush is president and he gets to pick. There is no paper trail because the of the Democrats ruthless lying about that record if a paper trail did exist. Bush is stupid? No, he’s learned his lessons well.
Gosh, Jiminy’s right!
All praise to George Bush, for so manfully protecting us Democrats from any chance that we might lie and disgrace ourselves!
As for this pick, it just goes to show how constricted and narrow W’s reality has become. He’s one embattled President–and psychologically pretty feeble–if he can’t find someone to nominate outside his own trusted circle of confidantes. It reminds me of nothing so much as Hitler in his bunker marrying Eva Braun as the Soviet Army entered Berlin.
Frankly, I don’t think W is going to have an easy time with this one. I think the Right is not going to be pleased.
Jimmy–
Thy name is hypocrisy. Using your logic, Clinton could do anything he wanted because “he was president.”
It’s “president,” Jimmy, not tyrranical dictator.
This is another weak nomination by a weak man.
But, hey, that’s what you get when you vote Republican . . .
She is a political hack. This is not a good appointment. I suspect that she will have a very tough time getting nominated.
She looks mean.
All things considered, Miers isn’t bad considering what we could have gotten. She contributed to Gore’s election in Tenn, and the Democratic party in the 80’s, so she can’t be all bad.
Let’s enjoy this; she’s not the Attila the Hun that the retarded right wingnuts wanted. They should be strangling on their own venom right about now. I can’t think of a better way for Bush to tell Dobson, et al, to kiss ass.
XXX
It is actually common for political hacks to contribute to certain opposing campaigns. It gives them access to their campaign events and etc. You will notice that even CEOs of major corporations even gave to Gore’s campaign, yet when you checked it out, they contributed a lot more to the Republican party, but just a messily $1000 to the DNC.
It is an old play book. Is an also a hard core evanglical and a Bush loyalist. She is being rewarded for Loyalty, just as Michael Brown was with an appointment to FEMA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Miers
For more about her.
Conservatives, we should not sweat this nomination. She is staff counsel for the President. He knows as well as anyone can how she will approach important issues. There was no simply reason to get into a huge battle at this point by nominating an in-your- face conservative. It is likely that Bush will have a least one more Supreme Court nominee during his term. I think that we should give the President the benefit of the doubt here. There are other battles looming.
Right, Dud–
She’s proven she take orders, first priority for conservatives.
So she and Clarence “Uncle Tom” Thomas can just say “yes” to everything Scalia writes.
Remember when conservatives were all about “competence” and not about gender and racial “quotas”?
HAHAHAHA!!!
Galahad,Conservatives have always claimed to be about competence, basing their claim on the success of American business, but the savings and loan scandal, followed by the dot-com collapse, proved that businessmen are no more competent than anyone else.As Sidney Harris put it, “The true miracle of American Capitalism is that businesses can be so badly mismanaged and still show a profit.”
I don’t think racists like Galahad belong on this blog.
It is hilarious to see the nut right frothing at the mouth and drooling about this.
But that is exactly why I don’t trust this one bit. I think this nominee may be every bit as scary and dangerous as the nut right wanted and the more reasonable among Americans feared. The good thing is that their OWN grilling of her at her confirmation hearings may bring this to light.
But in the meantime the the “righteous” indignation of Bush’s own kook base against him is highly entertaining!
Harriet Miers is more proof than we ever needed that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know! This is the worst example of cronyism yet, in an administration that takes the reputation of cronyism to an all-time low!
Galahad,you are the worst kind of racist. Let a black man rise above the liberal welfare dead end and he’s labelled an “uncle Tom” by you and your hateful cronies.
You claim to be all for the little black guy, but only as long as he “knows his place.”
Liberal bigots like you are huge in the elitist democrat establishment. You should go far. You have their hypocrisy down pat.
Someday, the black community will come after you guys with a vengeance; and I, for one, will enjoy the sight. In the meantime, you and your hateful brethren can stick your callous bigotry where the sun don’t shine. Take your endless cheap shots and get lost, mr. callous. You will not be missed.
I like that name for you — yes, mr. callous it is. Finally, we have your real name spelled right.
Out of all the judges in all the world, Dubbya picks Harriet Miers? What major case has she ruled on? Nevermind, I forgot she’s not a judge. Cronyism at its best.
Cronyism to an all time low? How soon we forget…Lyndon Johnson nominated his long time pal Abe Fortas to the bench. Roosevelt nominated two non=judge buddies.
This is nothing new.
So far I’ve heard weak, hack, mean, but little of her qualifications, which seem to be on the narrow side. I, for one, would like to hear her answer the hopefully tough questions the senate asks her.It wouldn’t suprise me, though, that with her limited qualifications, she turns out to be another Brown.
Yeah, but Johnson and Roosevelt didn’t put unqualified cronies in every department’s leadership positions. Most people who exibit this much inadequacy in a job would already have been fired….or impeached, if you prefer.
Yeah Ray, and Abe Fortus was a really bad pick. That is why Republicans were against it. Not because of Democrats, because they knew he was no good and not qualified. He only served like 4 years before he had to resign because of a scandal.
Just goes to show that appointing political hacks to the Supreme Court as a reward for loyalty is not a good idea.
Puny (Andy),
So it’s Andy now. Yeah, as I’ve said before, calling Clarence Thomas and “uncle Tom” is really unfair.
To “Uncle Tom.” Uncle Tom was rather a nice guy in that famous novel by Stowe. No one would ever say that about Clarence Thomas.
I don’t oppose Thomas because he’s black, obviously. Thurgood Marshall was one of the best justices we’ve ever had. I oppose him because he’s not a good justice. He just smiles and nods to everything Scalia writes.
Why don’t you pick a name and go with it, Puny? You’re not making your side look like it’s got more people in it when you use ten different aliases . . .
BTW, I hate Scalia’s decisions even more than Thomas’s, so I’m equal opportunity when it comes to opposing the right-wing reactionaries.
I love the way you reich-wingers say “no quotas” until it’s time to replace a black or a woman on the Supreme Court. Then it’s like “oh crap, where are we going to find a right-wing woman who’s also a decent judge?”
In Meire’s case, you couldn’t find one, hehehe.
Ray Thomas,
Well, the old Wingnut attempt to ignore facts tar everyone with the same brush. Frankly, you’re stupid, Ray, to try to dismiss Abe Fortas as a partisan hack. Second in his class at Yale: editor of the Yale Law Review, Undersecretary of the Interior in the Roosevelt Administration. He was eminently qualified for the position, and had served in government for a long time independently of his patron, Lyndon Johnson. You can’t say that about Harriet Miers. All of her national political involvement has been as a hireling and personal attorney of George W. Bush. Wouldn’t you say there’s a bit of difference in their relative stature?
Andy,
So, you’re going to defend Clarence Thomas as shining Horatio Alger self-made man? I guess that’s the only thing that keeps you from having to confront the overt racism of your party and the way it uses anti-black racism to win national elections. You Republican pukes make me laugh every time you robotically repeat that think tank spin about the ‘liberal plantation.’ Tell that to John Conyers, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Charlie Rangel, Shelia Jackson Lee, Cynthia McKinney, Harold Ford Jr, and, yes, even Barack Obama. They’re in the driver’s seat. And what African-American GOPers currently hold national elective office, Andy?
In the last forty years, what has the GOP done for black folks? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Other than use them as a negative stereotype to consolidate the dixiecrat and urban blue collar voting blocs.
So shove the ‘liberal planation’ back up your ass where it belongs, Andy. You and Ray Thomas belong to the party of opportunistic bigotry, and deservedly have ZERO credibility with African-Americans.
Actually CF. You are wrong. Abe was not qualified. Just because you were in the government and went to Law School doesn’t make you a good pick.
You must have people who understand and work in Constitutional Law. People make the reference of Renhquist never being a judge, but he was a law clerk for the Supreme Court and he worked in Constitutional Law.
Also! CF! Those Democrats you mention, some of them are very extereme and nobody listens to them. The Democrats has had a strong hold on the Black vote for 50 years, along with the Democrats having control over Congress for the last 40 before 1994. What have they done to improve the black community? Nothing!
Every election cycle, more and more black people are becoming Republicans. This scares the “keep them poor” Democrats who don’t want to see this happen.
J.C. Watts was a black Republican Congressman, who recently retired from Congress, was a well respected Congressperson and did a lot of good things.
Ray Nagin from New Orleans was a long time Republican, although he is Democrat (because that is the only way to get elected in that state) just to get elected. He constantly supported Republican candidates and even campaigned against Blanco when she was running for Governor.
It will be a matter of time before you start seeing an upserge in Black Republicans.
Joe,
Fantasyland is a comforting place, isn’t it Joe?
I won’t even bother to argue with you over Abe Fortas. He was obviously qualified to be an Associate Justice, and was widely recognized as one of the most brilliant legal minds of his time. He was a true legal heavyweight, his conflicts of interest with LBJ notwithstanding. FYI, Sandra Day O’Connor had NO experience in the Federal Judiciary prior to her appointment.
So, Democrats have done ‘nothing’ to improve the black community? I’ll agree the Democratic Party hasn’t done enough, but you’re just flat out, totally, factually without ANY ARGUMENTS for that assertion. Ever heard of Head Start?
So, Joe, nobody listens to Chuck Rangel? Nobody listens to John Conyers? That’s a hogwash argument, Joe, that borders on racism. They’re U.S. Representatives–doesn’t matter whether you take ‘em seriously or not. Who made you the arbiter of whether or not someone is legitimate? And why should black representatives have any less legitimacy than right-right, extremist whackjobs like Tom Coburn, Sam Brownback, and Curt Weldon?
As far as increasing the GOP’s percentage of the black vote, Good F###ing Luck. I believe Katrina took care of that quite nicely. It exposed the racial divide that has put the GOP in power. The Democratic Party surely needs to do better by its black voters. But there’s no way they could do worse things to black America than the GOP’s all-out war against black folks.
And now that you’ve trotted out the moldering corpse of J.C. Watts, I believe I’ll declare victory. How can the GOP do any worse than they currently are doing?
Well…touched a nerve, did I? I never remember saying anything about good/bad qualifications..just that there is substantial precedent for presidents appointing long term friends to the Supreme Court.
I did not claim it was good/bad or indifferent…just that for people to suggest the Bush is the only one to ever do it is flat out wrong. I was simply demonstrating precedence.
Touchy, are we?
Ray Thomas,
Your ‘everybody does it’ defense was intended to deflect attention away from the specific charge that cronyism under Bush has reached an ‘all time low.’ You weren’t merely reporting facts, but spinning them.
It’s obvious that your argumentative goal was to defend present practices in the Rove Administration. There’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t pretend you weren’t making a point for partisan ends.
Ray,It’s easy to touch a CF nerve. He takes hypersensitivity about his looney, loser-leftist laments to all-time lows.
mr. callous (Gagahad) also goes by Mister Twister and other names. He comes from the “it takes one to know one” school of reasoning, and tries to hide his bottom-scraping wimpiness by being almost as pointlessly crass as CF.
You’re right, Puny as Andy. When I first started posting here about three months ago, I used Mister Twister, then Antares, and then Gandalf.
I don’t feel the need to change my name so much anymore, so I’ve stuck with this one for about a month.
What I DON’T do is post under different names as a different person–in other words, I don’t claim to be black when I’m actually white, I don’t claim to be Islamic when I’m actually Christian, I don’t claim to be a visiting professor or in the military or a small business owner or from Africa when I’m not.
Which is what you do, you lying POS.
I am stupid because I relate some history? Did I claim that Abe Fortas was not qualified? Did I claim that precedence excuses any behavior? Did I spin anything?
Nope. Just the facts…it is not new or unusual for a president to appoint friends/acquaintences. It is not unusual for non-judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court either.
Before anyone takes offense to that last statement, re-read it and see that it is a simple statement of fact. Not pro or con anything..just a fact.
I imagine that her main qualification is the file she has tucked away detailing all the Bush family shenanegans. That should qualify her for just about any post she wants!
I was listening to Fox news this evening. Some conservatives are having a hemhorrage over Miers. This is great! Republicans wanted a die-hard ideolog, and they’re going to have to hold their nose and support Great Leader’s nomination. I heard Rush complain that this was the opportunity to take over the courts that conservatives have been waiting 30 years for, and Bush waffled.This just shows that Bush is too weak from his performance on Iraq and Katrina to start a war with Democrats.
If it limps like a duck and lisps like a duck, it’s probably a lame duck.
Remember how Bush chose Cheney? He appinted Cheney to look for his running mate. Now old Dick came back with a stack of stuff for Bush to read. But of course bush does not like to read. So he tapped Cheney.
Kinda the same thing here but with a twist. Miers is Bush’s lwayer. He tasked her to find nominess for the Supreme Court. She brought him info to pore over but Bush was likely planning another tax cut, war, or vacation. So he just said “skip it Harriet, I’m nominating you!”
That brittle, crackling sound you just heard is hell freezing over: CF agrees with Ian Santiago.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Bilge,
I guess that makes you one of the lucky few for whom the suffering of others provides ‘entertainment.’
And someone upthread called ME crass?