Miers to be SC nominee?

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This thread is hilarious

Oops. Miers once said that George W. Bush "was the most brilliant man she had ever met."

I hereby retract anything good about her that I ever may have thought.

[...] But with a 55-seat Republican majority in the Senate and the certainty that a Democratic filibuster would kick in the "nuclear option" breaking the filibuster, Bush did not need to go with stealth. The Roberts nomination proved that. People are saying this was a pick made out of weakness. I disagree. I think this was a pick made out of lese majeste -- an "I am the president and this is what I want" arrogance. I think he'll get what he wanted. Which means there will be at least two people -- Bush and Harriet Miers -- who will be delighted on the day she is sworn in. But probably not a whole lot more

Might be of some comfort to all you progressives and liberals that Bush appears to have pulled the carpet out from under his strongest support base.

In brief remarks during the announcement, a beaming Ms. Miers said she had a duty to "ensure the courts meet their obligation to strictly apply" the constitution and to adhere to "the founders' vision of the court."

Dubya is a genius. He chose someone with a Democratic past, yet I can guarantee you she will be enthusiastically conservative as a Supreme Court judge.

There's something else not yet considered in this thread. He'll almost definitely have yet a third seat to fill. The real fight will occur then (most likely with the nuclear option being played), but with that appointment, the Court will be set for decades to come. (Yeah!!!)

He's a genius

By ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's choice to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice and moderate abortion rights supporter Sandra Day O'Connor was a leader in an unsuccessful fight to get the nation's largest lawyers' group to reconsider its pro-abortion rights stance.

As president of the Texas State Bar in 1993, Harriet Miers urged the national American Bar Association to put the abortion issue to a referendum of the group's full membership. She questioned at the time whether the ABA should "be trying to speak for the entire legal community" on an issue that she said "has brought on tremendous divisiveness" within the ABA.

Miers was among a group of lawyers from the Texas bar and elsewhere who had argued that the ABA should have a neutral stance on abortion.

Analysis: Bush Gambles on Miers

Monday October 3, 2005 10:01 PM


By RON FOURNIER

AP Political Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some liberals call it cronyism. Some conservatives call it a betrayal. President Bush is gambling that it will prove smart and safe - choosing a little-known loyalist with no judicial experience to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy.

Harriet Miers seems destined for confirmation. Despite howls from the fringes of both parties, Democratic and Republican strategists expect her to take a seat alongside newly minted Chief Justice John Roberts barring a surprise development.

It's a good sign for Bush and his attorney-turned-nominee when the first words from Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid are these: ``I like Harriet Miers.''

It helps that Republicans hold 55 of the Senate's 100 seats.

It helps that Democrats are chastened from the 2004 campaign, when leader Tom Daschle lost his South Dakota Senate seat after Republicans cast him as an obstructionist.

It helps that Bush bowed to pressure and nominated a woman.

``Having never served as a judge, Ms. Miers has no paper trail of judicial opinions, and prospective opponents thus will have a hard time identifying positions to protest or complain about,'' said Supreme Court historian David Garrow.

Artemus Ward, a Northern Illinois University political science professor, said the public will be suspicious of Miers' lack of service on the bench. Still, he called the nomination a smart move.

``You try to pick a nominee that Democrats won't be able to criticize as much because they are a woman or a minority,'' he said. ``This is a classic Clarence Thomas strategy.''

Thomas was nominated for the Supreme Court by Bush's father. Though his confirmation hearings were tumultuous, much of the controversy was over personal rather than policy issues - and he was approved. The first Bush White House was ridiculed by some for insisting that Thomas was the most qualified pick available, a line echoed by the second Bush White House concerning Miers.

``The president selected her because she is the best person to fill this vacancy,'' said spokesman Scott McClellan.

In strictly political terms, it doesn't matter. With 51 votes required for confirmation, Bush just needs to keep GOP senators in line and avoid a bruising political fight.

Republican strategists said they would have to work hard to ensure the support of the more conservative members of the Senate. That's because the GOP is divided in two camps.

Traditional conservatives who dominate the GOP legal community said they were satisfied with Bush's promise that Miers ``will not legislate from the bench.'' The phrase is a signal to the president's political base that Miers will help steer the judiciary to the right.

``Conservatives should be very happy with this selection,'' said Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society.

But many social conservatives are unhappy. They had demanded a certified conservative with a long, written record in opposition to abortion and gay rights and in line with Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

Public Advocate called her selection ``a betrayal of the conservative, pro-family voters'' who put Bush in the White House.

On the Internet, the writings of social conservatives dripped with criticism and skepticism. ``Where is our Scalia/Thomas?'' wrote a blogger on redstate.org and confirmthem.com. Several bloggers complained about Miers donating to Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign.

White House defenders quickly took to the same blogs and noted that Miers had fought to reverse an abortion-rights stand taken by the American Bar Association.

As with Roberts, who breezed to confirmation, Bush is counting on his supporters to trust his judgment. Polls show strong support for the president among conservatives, even as some other voters turn away.

One social conservative leader, James Dobson, said he trusted Bush and Miers appeared to be an outstanding choice.

``We look forward to learning more about her at the confirmation hearings,'' he said.

A Republican strategist with close ties to both the White House and social conservatives put it this way: If Roberts' nomination was welcomed by Bush's base with a loud cheer, Miers received polite applause and a few raised eyebrows.

The pick gives Bush a chance to reshape the court for the long haul and - in the short term - change the subject from Iraq, gas prices, Hurricane Katrina and the public's rising anxiety over the economy.

Under pressure from liberal interest groups to oppose any Bush nominee, some Democrats are laying the groundwork to cast the White House counsel as a Bush crony who benefited from the same type of political favoritism that put Michael Brown in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pete Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University, said picking a pal for the Supreme Court ``seems like a flat-footed thing to do'' after the post-Katrina fallout over FEMA.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat in the Judiciary Committee who voted for Roberts, said all he knows about Miers is her ``reputation for being loyal to this president.''

The truth is, nobody knows what kind of justice Miers would make. Even Roberts, one day into his lifetime appointment, is a mystery - a stealthy conservative.

Maybe that's how Bush wants it.