From Roll Call (sub.req.): “Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) questioned Tuesday whether Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has a ‘firm commitment’ to what he called the framersâ ‘original intent’ of the Constitution, saying that President Bushâs knowledge of her âheartâ didnât end the need for tough questioning.”
I was thinking yesterday about the Miers nomination. And it occurred to me that while President Bush may not be world’s most brilliant man, as Miers has claimed, he may have an unintended knack for irony.
In the case of John Roberts the president served up a nominee who was pretty clearly a down-the-line conservative but also, in the sense of value-neutral credentials and qualifications, certainly qualified for the job. With Miers, you have someone with what might be real moderate tendencies, but also someone who on pretty much every count seems unqualified for the position.
So what to do?
Certainly one thing to do is sit back and relish the brewing fight between the principled wingnuts and the confirmed Bush toadies. At the same time, it must be occurring to at least some Dems that, at least in ideological terms, they could likely do far worse than Miers. In any case, set that all aside and focus on the fact that Miers has been involved — often deeply involved — in pretty much everything that the White House has been trying to keep secret for going on five years. That should make for interesting questioning.
