Harriet Miers: The Right Candidate?

Is Harriet Miers the right candidate to replace Sandra Day O'Connor? Here are a few thoughts, in bulleted format.

I heard a rumor that Ms. Miers gave money to Al Gore's campaign. Not cool... Unless she was trying to purchase his secret to designing internets, or possibly bribe him into revealing the location and combination to the lock box. Either way, I think it's very questionable.

I don't really have a problem with Ms. Miers not being a justice already; apparently that's fairly common, and I'd rather have a couple of non-judges on the court. I'd prefer it if we had a little bit of background on her, but as far as I'm concerned, her not having any judicial experience isn't a disqualifier.

It sounds like she's been close to the Bush Administration for a long time, which means that it's unlikely that she's some liberal plant or something. As long as she's been on President Bush's staff, I think it's somewhat unlikely that she's a Souter in Scalia's clothing. (How creepy is that mental picture!?)

I'm not qualified to say whether President Bush could have "done better". I would have liked to have seen a Miguel Estrada, or even a Janice Rogers Brown; apparently Mr. Estrada had already said he wasn't interested in a SCOTUS position, and Mrs. Rogers Brown, now a federal judge, has just been confirmed to her new position. Like I said, I'm not qualified, and I don't know the process that President Bush and his staff have gone through.

Whether we like it or not, the politics card is always in play, and right now President Bush's popularity ratings aren't wonderful. I still support him, and I still think that, as usual, he's being unfairly blamed for things that have nothing to do with him, but you play the hand you're dealt. President Bush was dealt a tough hand: the death of the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS in the same wake as a horrible disaster that his political enemies blamed him for. As much as we'd like for him to wait until his poll numbers were up, I think most of us are thankful that he's not another Clinton. The flipside of that is that he has to pick his battles, and this might not be the right time for a political battle about this.

Bottom line for me? Maybe there was a better candidate, but unlike many fairweather patriots, I trust that President Bush knows the character of someone who has been a part of his staff as long as Ms. Miers has. Even so, I'll probably remain quiet and observe on the subject. We all know that the future of the Supreme Court is one of the major elements to President Bush's legacy, and it would be a very poor choice for President Bush to settle on what will probably be the last Supreme Court justice he has the opportunity to appoint.

Let me suggest something, though.

Whether it's true or not, I've been hearing since Justice Rehnquist died and we knew that President Bush would be appointing not one, but two justices in rapid succession, that the initial candidate would probably skate through, largely unscathed; but that the second nominee would have a more difficult confirmation process. What if Ms. Miers is a ruse? What if the guy liberals love to hate, Karl Rove, has cooked up another ingenious scheme, and Ms. Miers is the sacrificial lamb?

Just think about it.

And of course, Lee and Anachronism are both shouting that the sky is falling. I'm not quite that worried yet; as questionable as the Miers nomination may seem, there's probably more to the story, and I can guarantee you that these gentlemen... Well, these bloggers, don't have the whole picture.