“Medicore people deserve representation on the Supreme Court, too.”
This page is a much better resource of information on the curious new choice for Supreme Court Justice than is this, which is simply a batch of editorials. While Molly Ivins may offer some keen insight into Harriet Miers, there’s something intrinsically novel about simply spelling out what is known and leaving it to create the picture.
A picture of what?
She has made campaign contributions to Democrats (Al Gore, Lloyd Bentsen, DNC) back in 1988, but has given much more to Republicans – and exclusively so after 1994 [via Americablog, Newsweek and Slingshot].
To support Al Gore back in 1988 is akin to supporting Joseph Lieberman in 2004. Which makes the next statement not in conflict:
RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie claimed she was a “conservative Democrat” in the early 1980s before she became Republican [via Political Animal].
For that matter, despite the wonkiness of the dates, I have a feeling that the following bit of speculation is generally if not specifically and totally true:
There is also a story that she turned Republican after becoming a “born-again” Christian in the early 1980s, but this is contradicted by the fact that she donated to Democrats like Gore in the late 1980s [via Americablog].
I do not think you can underestimate the “Born Again” nature or the nature of her new-fangled hard-core church on her “judicial philosophy”.
In fact, Miers has proven herself to be a GOP hack and both a personal and political crony of President George Bush. She was “a top-level regular in the “Strategery Group,” where Bush’s top political advisers contemplated how to use the levers of government to advance the Republican Party. And it continues on to worship of every Bush policy decision and covering up of every Bush scandals over the years.
# Westlaw records show that she has only argued 4 cases in Texas state courts in 30 years [via Is That Legal]. Commenter Kenneth points out that it is quite possible that she argued many more cases which were not reported online.
# She seems to have argued only 3 cases in 30 years at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (and lost all three) [via Is That Legal].
And it is there that I throw up my hands and shrug. Is she the least qualified nominee offered up for Supreme Court Justice in American history? We know that Harry Truman offered up cronies for supreme court justices — one of the reasons his approval rating rarely piqued above the 50% thresh-hold. And Nixon offered up a Justice whom Senator Roman Hruska defended with the statement that “Medicore people deserve representation on the Supreme Court, too.” What I’m going to need to do is to research back in time to figure out what this batch of justice’s qualifications, or lack thereof, was.
In the realm of political and judicicial decision-making… I cannot say I sympathize with the right-wing complaint that she might not be anti-gay or anti-abortion enough. Would you please keep in mind that Justice Roberts was passed with a full half of the Democratic Caucus vote? Senator Brownback’s demands that she flesh out where she stands on the issue smacks against the olde canard about being against “Litmus Tests”.
Which is a good thing that James Dobson has it that “When you know some of the things I know — that I probably shouldn’t know — that take me in this direction, you’ll know why I’ve said with fear and trepidation … I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice”. Did Karl Rove tell him something, or does this mean he knows the nature of her goddamned deviant church?
Okay. I’ll come out officially: I oppose the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. For whatever that’s worth. Got that? Get your Senator to defeat her nomination, please, and throw her to the dustbin of Supreme Court nominations, along with Nixon’s mediocre pick and Reagan’s nutzoid pick of Judge Bork. (Where Clarence Thomas oughta be, but never mind.)
Senate phone number: 1-800-SOB-U-SOB. (It’s so kind of the Senate to come up with an easy to remember phone number like that.)