Harriet Miers: another Bush lapdog
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum has some interesting things to say about Bush's latest Supreme Court nominee. Last week, he said, "I believe I was the first to float the name of Harriet Miers, White House counsel, as a possible Supreme Court. Today her name is all over the news. I have to confess that at the time, I was mostly joking. In the White House that hero-worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met."
The most brilliant man she had ever met? With judgment like that, how can this woman judge Supreme Court cases with any credibility whatsoever?
This week, Frum changed his tune slightly about Miers but still has reservations:
"I worked with Harriet Miers. She's a lovely person: intelligent, honest, capable, loyal, discreet, dedicated...I could pile on the praise all morning. But nobody would describe her as one of the outstanding lawyers in the United States. And there is no reason at all to believe either that she is a legal conservative or - and more importantly - that she has the spine and steel necessary to resist the pressures that constantly bend the American legal system toward the left.
"I am not saying that she is not a legal conservative. I am not saying that she is not steely. I am saying only that there is no good reason to believe either of these things. Not even her closest associates on the job have no good reason to believe either of these things. In other words, we are being asked by this president to take this appointment purely on trust, without any independent reason to support it. And that is not a request conservatives can safely grant.
"She rose to her present position by her absolute devotion to George Bush. I mentioned last week that she told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. To flatter on such a scale a person must either be an unscrupulous dissembler, which Miers most certainly is not, or a natural follower. And natural followers do not belong on the Supreme Court of the United States."
http://www.thismodernworld.com/
The most brilliant man she had ever met? With judgment like that, how can this woman judge Supreme Court cases with any credibility whatsoever?
This week, Frum changed his tune slightly about Miers but still has reservations:
"I worked with Harriet Miers. She's a lovely person: intelligent, honest, capable, loyal, discreet, dedicated...I could pile on the praise all morning. But nobody would describe her as one of the outstanding lawyers in the United States. And there is no reason at all to believe either that she is a legal conservative or - and more importantly - that she has the spine and steel necessary to resist the pressures that constantly bend the American legal system toward the left.
"I am not saying that she is not a legal conservative. I am not saying that she is not steely. I am saying only that there is no good reason to believe either of these things. Not even her closest associates on the job have no good reason to believe either of these things. In other words, we are being asked by this president to take this appointment purely on trust, without any independent reason to support it. And that is not a request conservatives can safely grant.
"She rose to her present position by her absolute devotion to George Bush. I mentioned last week that she told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. To flatter on such a scale a person must either be an unscrupulous dissembler, which Miers most certainly is not, or a natural follower. And natural followers do not belong on the Supreme Court of the United States."
http://www.thismodernworld.com/
posted by Editor at Large at 10:48 AM
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