Finding Harriet

I’m not sure what to make of the nomination of Ms. Miers to SCOTUS. For two days I have read wildly differing claims about her, all from people whose opinions I respect.

I’m on the fence and I bet I’m not alone.

Yes, it will be nice having someone on the Supreme Court who has not been educated in an Ivy Tower but who has some experience of life in the real world. On the other hand, she has never been a judge and is SCOTUS really the place for On-The-Job-Training?

She is a crony of President Bush, and I worry that he may not be truly objective about her abilities. I would have preferred to have someone a bit more seasoned, if you will. However, there will be little for Democrats and the Left-wing Looneys to attack—and considering how little support Bush seems to get from his fellow Republicans, maybe this is the best he can do.

I find it ironic, and somewhat encouraging, that the hardcore of both the Right and the Left disklike her, and for almost the same reasons. Maybe she is truly a centrist, truly closer to where most Americans are politically.

On the other hand, I wish the President would be stronger about his core beliefs and stand more firmly for them. He is not running for re-election. The Looney Left and the Dems will never embrace him or give him any credit for anything positive that happens. So, my best motherly advice is for President Bush to ignore them.

The same is true of the Righteous Right. They will never be happy until America turns back the clock to the 1950’s. There is no room in their world for abortion or gays or non-Biblical truths. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes would not be good enough for them, nor Justice Jay Marshall.

I wish President Bush was more serious about cutting back on government spending. I wish he would secure the borders and not have the TSA waste time searching the shoes of my (almost) 80-year-old mother for explosives. I wish the Federal Government was giving power back to the States rather than taking more of it. I wish he’d use the presidency as a “bully pulpit” to point out all the reasons energy is so expensive and why it might be in short supply.

I also wish the Republicans in Congress trusted the President more and were willing to put their political careers on the line and do what’s best for the country and not just to get elected. I don’t count on any Republicans supporting the President wholeheartedly on anything.

As for Ms. Miers: she’ll have her day in front of the Senate Committee. Ted Kennedy will mumble something incoherent about women’s rights. Dianne Feinstein will make another asinine remark that demonstrates she’s clueless about what being a Justice (or even what being a lawyer) is about. Joe Biden will ask convoluted questions and demand one-word answers. NARAL and NOW and Move-On will be trying to dig up something—ANYTHING—sordid about Ms. Miers past. What they can’t find, they’ll invent.

Ann Coulter’s and Pat Buchanan’s heads will explode.

The rest of us will continue on with our daily lives…

Meanwhile, read the following:

Michelle Malkin The Anchoress
Thomas Lifson, The American Thinker: Don’t Misunderestimate Miers