Miers
I don't see how anyone can be so much against Harriet Miers when we don't even know anything about her yet. What's the point? How about wait until the hearings?
Gary Bauer says she "sounds to me a lot like another swing vote." Based on what?
Bill Kristol is calling for her ot be withdrawn because she is an "unknown and undistinguished figure." Sorry, I must have missed the part in the Constitution that said you must know about her, or that she have a certain sort of pedigree.
David Frum says she is someone who has "never found it necessary to express herself on any of the great issues of the day," "not someone who thought deeply or hard about legal issues." The former being true is a good thing for a justice who is to follow the law, not passion; the latter, if true, will be revealed in the hearings: it was perfectly evidence that Roberts was such a deep thinker, and she will be held up to his standard, still fresh in our minds.
Charles Krauthammer says if she were not a Bush crony, her appointment would be a joke.
President Truman nominated former U.S. AG Tom Clark, and Truman was attacked in the Washington Post for cronyism, saying she was unqualified except for that he was a personal friend of the President. Clark was confirmed, and was a well-respected member of the court.
Truman called Clark the biggest mistake of his Presidency, but mostly just because Clark wasn't a good crony: he sided against Truman when he seized the nation's steel mills to avert a strike (after advising Truman, as Attorney General, that Truman had the right to do it! Bad crony! No cookie!). Who can say what Miers will do in a similar situation?
Interestingly, LBJ engineered Clark's retirement in 1967 so LBJ could nominate Thurgood Marshall. Clark's son Ramsey was the new AG, and LBJ told Ramsey he thought there was a conflict of interest there, if Ramsey were to represent the government in front of his father. And thus LBJ got to nominate the first black justice to the Supreme Court.
Bottom line: let's just wait and see, for crying out loud. Be concerned, but don't jump to conclusions until they are warranted.
I may very well oppose Miers, but why would I do that until I actually had facts on which to base such opposition?
Gary Bauer says she "sounds to me a lot like another swing vote." Based on what?
Bill Kristol is calling for her ot be withdrawn because she is an "unknown and undistinguished figure." Sorry, I must have missed the part in the Constitution that said you must know about her, or that she have a certain sort of pedigree.
David Frum says she is someone who has "never found it necessary to express herself on any of the great issues of the day," "not someone who thought deeply or hard about legal issues." The former being true is a good thing for a justice who is to follow the law, not passion; the latter, if true, will be revealed in the hearings: it was perfectly evidence that Roberts was such a deep thinker, and she will be held up to his standard, still fresh in our minds.
Charles Krauthammer says if she were not a Bush crony, her appointment would be a joke.
President Truman nominated former U.S. AG Tom Clark, and Truman was attacked in the Washington Post for cronyism, saying she was unqualified except for that he was a personal friend of the President. Clark was confirmed, and was a well-respected member of the court.
Truman called Clark the biggest mistake of his Presidency, but mostly just because Clark wasn't a good crony: he sided against Truman when he seized the nation's steel mills to avert a strike (after advising Truman, as Attorney General, that Truman had the right to do it! Bad crony! No cookie!). Who can say what Miers will do in a similar situation?
Interestingly, LBJ engineered Clark's retirement in 1967 so LBJ could nominate Thurgood Marshall. Clark's son Ramsey was the new AG, and LBJ told Ramsey he thought there was a conflict of interest there, if Ramsey were to represent the government in front of his father. And thus LBJ got to nominate the first black justice to the Supreme Court.
Bottom line: let's just wait and see, for crying out loud. Be concerned, but don't jump to conclusions until they are warranted.
I may very well oppose Miers, but why would I do that until I actually had facts on which to base such opposition?
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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