The Harriet Miers nomination is a joke. The American people should be insulted that President Bush saw her fit for duty the Supreme Court. In the minds of most people who have at least a clue as to how the judicial system works, Miers is a kindergartner on a playing field for grown-ups. Her nomination is nothing more than another kickback by President Bush, who values personal loyalty over good advice. Miers is one of Bush's cronies, a Texas "good ole' boy" trapped in the body of a leather-faced sixty-year old woman. If Miers were a man, then her nomination would be dead on arrival, and, in no time, she would be back at the White House helping the Bush administration orchestrate a cover up for Karl Rove and lie about Iraq. Instead, because she is female and does not think for herself, she is in line to be Sandra Day O'Connor's token replacement on the Supreme Court.
Miers' qualifications leave much to be desired. True, she is not the only person nominated to serve on the Court without having been a judge first, but she would definitely be the least accomplished. Abe Fortas, a former Supreme Court justice nominated by another Texan, Lyndon Johnson, was also a presidential personal attorney, but he had argued in front of the Supreme Court and was at least minimally qualified for the Court. William Taft was President before serving on the Court. Earl Warren, the former Chief Justice who ran the court during the Civil Rights movement, was governor of California before being nominated by President Eisenhower. Before being tapped by President Bush, Harriet Miers was...head of the...Texas lottery commission and a city...council...woman? President Bush talks ad nauseam about the "soft bigotry of low expectations", yet his expectations for Miers are so low that he has to constantly reassure the nation that she's competent enough to be a judge?
In picking Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, the Republicans are simply following a trend they've set in recent years: insulting the intelligence of the American people. First, in 2000, they succeeded in vaulting an unremarkable, bumbling Texas governor who never met an English phrase he couldn't mangle into the White House. In 2002, they succeeded in scaring the country into fighting a war for oil in Iraq. In 2004, they got the same bumbling Texan re-elected, even though his most profound statement about the presidency was that it was "hard work". Now, with Harriet Miers, the Republicans are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
By nominating Harriet Miers, President Bush has lowered the standard for Supreme Court candidates. Now, any third-rate lawyer or small-time political hack is in play. As long as the nominee is a party loyalist who has someone else pulling his or her strings, there's a chance he or she may be picked for the Court.
It is telling that some conservatives feel comfortable about Miers being on the Court, even though she is unqualified. It is disturbing that President Bush feels reasonably sure about how Miers would vote on crucial issues, especially Roe v. Wade. No judge should be a parrot or a puppet. Every judge must develop opinions independently, and rule the way that their reasoning tells them to. No Supreme Court justice should ever be taking cues from any White House, red or blue.
And what should the average Democrat be doing? Praying. Praying that, for once, the Democrats don't trip over their own feet. Praying that, for once, Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership get the politics right, come together, and filibuster the Miers nomination to death. Average Democrats should be praying that no senator on their side of the aisle gets cute and joins the Republicans in a display of "bipartisanship."
There is no way that Harriet Miers should get through the Senate, because she doesn't even have the full support of a Republican party that is too busy fighting with itself. The Republicans have been burying themselves over the past nine months, first with Terri Schiavo, then with Iraq, stem cells, Katrina and Karl Rove. Failing to get Miers onto the Court would put the Republicans another six feet under. All the Democrats need to do is stick together and keep quiet...but are they smart enough to do that?
Robert Idlett is a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, and a liberal columnist for The Eagle.
