Posted 3 years, 2 months ago in the early morning by abogado
So, I wake up this morning to hear Katie Couric declare that Bush has announced his nomination to succeed Justice O’Connor, and – like brushing your teeth with hot water – something just doesn’t feel right about it. Yes, Katie is annoying, but there was something else. First, why make the announcement at 7:30am EST? Sure, it’s the first day of the Supreme Court’s term, so there was probably some impetus to announce before that, but I think it more likely that this gives the Republicans a chance to do a little public opinion moulding before the “left coast” media has a chance to opine on the subject. Second, who the hell is this woman? Her résumé is like the antithesis of Roberts’: not a judge, not a supreme court litigator, not an Ivy grad, not top of her class, not particularly attractive (I understand Roberts has the ladies swooning), and not a whole lot that makes you say “wow,” or even “hmm.” Bush seems to be begging for the charge of “cronyism” that is already being bounded about the media from the epic failure of Bush’s buddy Brownie and FEMA. There is no doubt that, by general standards, her life has been successful, but her best qualifications seem to be no more than her connections to the President. Yes, there have been supreme court justices that have not been judges (though relatively few lately) but you can’t even compare their qualifications.
See e.g., Rehnquist
Stanford B.A., M.S. Political Science
Harvard M.S. Government
Stanford J.D.
Clerk for Justice Jackson
etc…
Every other sitting Justice was a Circuit Judge at a United States Court of Appeals. I’m finding my own reaction somewhat elitist, but I’m certainly not the only one who was comforted by Roberts’ qualifications and disconcerted by Miers’ lack thereof. I just keep thinking, “Is this the person I want deciding our constitutional future?” Then I remember that I’m talking to myself and it doesn’t matter what I think and go back to eating my Hot Pocket and reading about fantasy football.
Update:
Conservatives are pissed.
Hispanics are pissed.
Update II:
Insight? And what’s up with this?:
“She hasn’t said a lot, but you don’t go to a church for 25 years if you’re not comfortable with what they think,” said Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht of Austin, Texas, a church member who says he’s shared a “semi-romantic” friendship with Miers for more than 30 years. “I’m sure she’s consistent with the church’s position.”
This about says it all: Harriet Miers thinks Bush is the most brilliant man she has ever met..
There are two possibilities. 1) She is retarded 2) Crony. I’m gonna go with door number two. Which means there will be no seperation of powers, Bush & Co will hold all three.
It seems to me she should have SOME credentials other than having a ‘gina.
Come on Bobbo, it’s not like you require anything else.
HIYO!!!!!!
First: The Wasp. Not my favorite Doors song. Second: I’m pissed too. I can’t believe you’re waking up with Katie Couric also. That two-timing …
If conservatives are pissed and hispanics are pissed, I’m way curious to read what the OG hispanic conservative has to say. I can’t imagine he would ever say anything bad about his Prince George. At least not without weeping first. Is it just me or does she have a gigantic forehead?
When did WaPo start using Technorati to track blog conversation? Pretty sweet. Too bad spammers will abuse until it’s forced down.
hey thanks for your perspective on the matter
reading about it left me saying….WTF!
Not knowing anything about Miers, and unsure if I’m supportive… I still like this from Scrappleface:
I bet the erstwhile Hispanic Pundit not two days ago that Bush would announce early on the first day of the new Supreme Court term. When I got up early this morning to get ready to go the airport for my flight back east, I popped on the TV and there W. was announcing his new pick. I woke HP up as he was my taxi to San Diego International and he thought I was joking about Bush picking Miers. When he saw it on the tube himself, he immediately hopped on the ‘net to check out his conservative sites to find out they are all pissed. He didn’t seem to be though. After all, while Miers was head of the Texas Bar Association she tried in vain to convince the American Bar Association to drop it’s support of abortion rights. That stance and her and Bush’s mutiple use of ’strict constructionist’ tells me why he nominated her. I have no doubt they discussed such issues directly in private and he was assured how she’d decide on such things.
Of course, I could be totally off base and she will turn out to be akin to David Souter … but I doubt it.
CAMPEONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES !!!!!!
Y CUIDATE COMPADREEEE
For the record, this Hispanic Conservative is PISSED!!! No, not because he didn’t nominate Gonzales (though I wish he would have nominated Miguel Estrada, but thanks to Democrats, that never would have happened), but because he let me down AGAIN on judges to the Supreme Court.
I said on this very blog, that I was very disappointed with Bush for nominating Roberts. I thought to myself, here we are controlling the white house, the senate, the house, we have an agreement on filibuster bans, and yet Bush decided to pick a moderate conservative to replace another moderate conservative?
But than, when I read how qualified he was, I thought, okay, maybe Bush was so impressed with his qualifications, that he decided to nominate him, and appease the Democrats in anticipation for the next nominee. It is afterall, replacing the moderate seat with a strong conservative that will have the most effect. Yeah, on the next nominee we will really get them!!!
Than Bush gives us Miers? WTF!!! I am floored, and to be to completely honest, VERY disappointed in Bush. When you have someone who contributed to the Gore campaign, who caused Democrat Leader Reid to come out and immediately give his approval of, and even have Chuck Shumer speak somewhat positively of, it is not hard to see that Bush let his base down. David Frum sums up my thoughts well,
Many conservatives from around the country are just as angry, just as disappointed, and feel just as betrayed as I do. There are some, while a very few, that say that we should trust Bush, afterall, he does know her personally. To those I ask to remember that this is the same guy that said he looked into the eyes of the dictator, errrr…., democratically elected President, of Russia and “found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy”, he was able, “to get a sense of his soul.” In other words, Bush is not to be trusted on his personality claims.
On the bright side, we will soon find out what kind of judge Miers and Roberts are. If these judges vote in favor of upholding, for the first time since Roe Vs Wade, a ban on late term abortions, it will help to erase some of my anger.
But unless that happens, you can count me as yet another conservative that no longer considers himself a Bush supporter.
HP, calmado chief. I had to keep scrolling to get to post my own comment.
Oso, at least she’s a Texan huh? Wait, axe that. That’s probably not a good thing.
btw, what the hell happened to my gravatar?
She looka lika man.
Oso - If gigantic forehead = success, then I’m well on my way buddy. WaPo just recognizes great punditry apparently.
Myke - I don’t think Bush is an idiot here. He knows what he is getting even if his conservative base does not. If I were them I’d be pissed for different reasons.
HP - Is this really accurate?:
When Bush nominated Roberts he was meant to replace O’Connor, so even though Roberts ended up taking Rehnquist’s place on the court, Miers is really replacing Rehnquist and Roberts is replacing O’Connor as far as Bush is concerned. Anyway, its only technical, but the point (I think) is that Roberts will be more conservative than O’Connor on the social issues and Miers is a sure bet to go along with the conservatives also - ala Rehnquist. I really don’t see what you’re losing here. Seems to me you guys all wanted a “statement nomination” (my phrase) that would be a slap in the face to half the nation. Instead you get a Bush hack. Doesn’t seem smart politically to me from Bush’s perspective, but what exactly do you lose?
And the late term abortion ban is a red herring in my opinion. It’s pretty much meaningless other than from the perspective of what it portends.
EMC - indeed.
Abo,
If what you say is true, that Miers and Roberts will be Rehnquist jurists, than I would agree, we really didn’t lose much, and in fact, gained. If that turns out to be the case, than I will take back what I have said about Bush above.
But those are big ifs. How sure are you that Roberts will be as conservative as Rehnquist? Or, much more problematic, that Miers will be? I am not so sure, and there are strong arguments to be made that she will not. In the end though, even if both Roberts and Miers do turn out to be Rehnquist jurists, I still think Bush err’ed here. With David Souter fresh on the mind of conservatives, Bush should have picked justices who have a much longer track record (or in this case, have a track record, period) of being originalists in their judicial philosophy. Why waste these Supreme Court opportunities on Roberts and Miers when Bush could have picked a Michael Luttig or a Sam Alito or a Michael McConnell or even a Richard Posner to replace them? These are not only conservatives, but nominations that are soo qualified, Democrats would not have been able to prevent them from getting confirmed. In addition, these are the type of nominees that are most likely to have a large influence on future nominees.
Now, instead, Bush gives us potential conservatives at best, possible Souters at worse. A betrayal of the worse sorts, especially to us who have continued to support him, even through some of his large mistakes, particularly because of his presumed support for ‘justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas’.
wait a minute, comments from males about a female’s physical traits when they obviously have no bearing on her professional qualifications?! i’ve never heard of such thing!
HP - “we” control the white house, senate, and house? “we”?? you feel like your part of a team here? feel like you belong? quit fooling yourself, hombre, the GOP dont give a fuck about your brown ass.
you’re all fools, the only court that will decide the future of this nation is the basketball court.
As a brown person, I don’t feel like I completely belong to any party. But compared to the alternative, I do feel like I belong more in the current administration than in the previous one. Atleast with the current administration, if I were to attend any of the high level meetings, there would be other brown people in attendance as well. Something that can’t be said of previous administrations.
Moreno,
It goes both ways. Then again, the fact that his name is Dick, he has a big dick, and he is a big dick, could be considered relevant.
HP,
“I’ll admit, sometimes I play the race card without meaning to.”
“Update: Conservatives are pissed. Hispanics are pissed”.
I’m somewhat conservative and I’m ‘hispanic’.
I’m not pissed yet……just taking a step back to see what is going to happen. I know HP is probably pissed.
Bye bye Miers…hello Alito. Opinions forthcoming.
Yes….welcome Alito.
I will be looking for your opinions, Abogado. 
I’m looking forward to them too … especially now that supposedly liberal judges are speaking out for him. At least according to the media.
[...] So, in the spirit of avoiding work that is desperately overdue I present my also long overdue opinion of Mr. Alito. I feel like I was pretty fair with Roberts and Miers, so hopefully I retain some credibility with our conservative readers when I say Alito should not be confirmed to the Supreme Court. I largely accept the premise that nominations to the Supreme Court are political and thus the corollary that Bush should be allowed to nominate whoever he wants. This is mostly because I also accept the premise that judging itself is largely a political process. There is simply no way to be objective when it comes to the major contemporary legal issues; every judge makes value decisions when deciding what the constitution means. In some ways this limits my arguments; I can’t yell and scream about protecting our rights and the like because I think our “rights” as defined in the Constitution are pretty vague and subject to opinion. Likewise, I can’t claim to know precisely what the founder’s meant in drafting each provision of the Constitution. So I’m left with political arguments. But I think at the moment these arguments are pretty strong. [...]