Monday, October 03, 2005

It's Harriet Miers

As you know by now, the President nominated Harriet Miers, his Counsel, for the Sandra Day O'Connor seat. Much consternation from both ends of the ideological spectrum which may mean the President has hit the sweet spot for confirmation. Sen. Schumer was flummoxed as to what to say in his early morning presser. Senator Feinstein made neutral comments on FoxNews.

My own reactions:

  • There is one person who knows her better than most people, and that is President Bush. She has his confidence, and this is not a Souter nomination.
  • She has primarily been a business attorney for over 25 years.
  • Her partners' confidence in her was sufficient that they elected her Chair of the firm. In some firms that is a political position. In some firms it means great business savvy.
  • She is clearly a lawyer who is politically savvy, having been elected President of the Dallas County Bar and State Bar of Texas. Both of those positions are political make no mistake about that.

Personally I would be delighted to see a lawyer with significant law practice experience on the Supreme Court. I am sure she will not be a favorite with zealots from either end of the spectrum. But she may be a very good Justice. I believe she will be confirmed, unless she exhibits shrewlike tendencies in the hearing.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree.

flenser said...

"But she may be a very good Justice."

How do you define somebody as a very good justice?

Also, I'm willing to assume for the sake of argument that she will be a very good justice, although I doubt it.

The question remains why we need to guess whether she will be a good justice or not, when there were known good justices for Bush to pick from.