Miers Post Mortem

Harriet Miers is gone. This did not have to happen. I love Bush, but he mucked this up royally and damaged a good and loyal friend in the process. Harriet Miers, while not SCOTUS material, has had a long and accomplished career. She was White Counsel for goodness' sake. Peter Principle or not, that's a great accomplishment. Now she'll be tagged as "incompetent" and an "intellectual lightweight" with the bruising she took from Conservatives this past 2 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, we had the right to stand up to Bush and did so in a mostly above board manner, but it's still sad to see. Who among my brethren (sisters too) in the legal community would turn down a chance to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States? Not many, if any would pass up the plummest of jobs -- even if we weren't sure we had the chops to do it. In addition, who's going to turn down the President of the United States? Most good public servants will step up to the plate when called on to serve.

GW Bush never should have chosen her either due to the appearance of cronyism or to the real and substantial deficiencies in her ability to either express a coherent judicial philosophy or fight the intellectual battles that will occur with Breyer and Ginsburg. We need a jurist who can compete in these battles. I don't know enough of McConnell or Luttig, but I've read some Janice Rogers Brown's opinions out here in CA and she seems fine, with all else I know of her.

Bush "screwed the pooch" on this one. Rove must be inordinately distracted with the faux scandal re Plame.