Rightank

This morning, President Bush nominated White House General Counsel Harriet Miers to fill O’Connor’s seat.

I am utterly disgusted by the nomination. I can’t believe that W. would deliberately refrain from selecting a verifiable, principled conservative for the position. President Bush nominated someone with no judicial experience and with absolutely no assurance (other than Bush trusts her) that Miers will not thrust gay marriage and support other socially destructive policies that will be trumpeted in the halls of the Supreme Court. I am very disappointed. Mark Levin’s comments sum up my feelings quite well:

Miers was chosen for two reasons and two reasons alone: 1. she’s a she; 2. she’s a long-time Bush friend. Otherwise, there’s nothing to distinguish her from thousands of other lawyers. And holding a high post in the Bar, which the White House seems to be touting, is like holding a high position in any professional organization. But it reveals nothing about the nominee’s judicial philosophy. There are many top officials in the Bar who I wouldn’t trust to handle a fender-bender. Also, early in his term, the president singled out the Bar for its partisan agenda and excluded it from a formal role in judicial selection. The president said he would pick a candidate like Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, and he did not. We all know of outstanding individuals who fit that bill, and they were once again passed over. Even David Souter had a more compelling resume that Miers.

The president and his advisors missed a truly historic opportunity to communicate with the American people about their government, the role of all three branches of the federal system, and the proper function of the judiciary. More importantly, they have failed to help the nation return to the equipoise of our constitutional system. And the current justices whose arrogance knows no bounds will be emboldened by this selection. They will see it as affirmation of their “extra-constitutionalism.” The president flinched. Some have compared have compared profligate spending to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. But no one will accuse him of FDR’s boldness when it comes to the Supreme Court.

If people are disappointed, they have every reason to be.

Conservatives should feel a little betrayal ebbing from the President’s pick. As Mark Levin shrewdly noted, Miers is simply not a judicial nominee in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. The base is upset, and I hope Bush feels the level of frustration of his loyal supporters regarding his nomination of Miers.

W. had his chance to shove a verifiable, conservative nominee in the liberals’ face. Instead, he choose to walk the path of diversity and preen to cajoling Senators who successfully prevented the American public from having another Supreme Court justice who is a verifiable, social conservative.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 at 9:58 am and is filed under The Courts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.