Brand New Day
After I finished editing the Pure Idiom Halloween podcast, I poked my head out the dark cave of my computer room and discovered, much to my delight, that mom and dad had stopped fighting over Harriet Miers and decided to kiss and make up.
I always hate it when mom and dad fight, but adults with strong convictions disagree now and again, and now that Miers is out of the running, even those that lent her nomination their support are breathing audible sighs of relief at the prospect of another supra-type Roberts' level nomination out of the whole debacle. I've been reading comments on some sites where alleged Conservatives are whining that the Right was so mean and (stomps foot) just plain beastly about the Harriet Miers nomination that they're retiring in shame from political junkie land and they'll stick to watching "Desperate Housewives" in the future, thank you very much.
Oh, grow up (and good riddance).
I wasn’t one of the pundits who took a viral dislike to the idea of Miers on the SCOTUS bench, but I'm not as informed on legal precedence as a good number of my peers, and I have enough presence of mind to understand that, while Miers may have been a good-enough nomination for the Supreme Court, “good-enough” is appropriate only when you might be playing Trivial Pursuit or chasing after an Oscar, not when there's a full-fledged tug-of-war going on between two opposing philosophies (Deconstructionist vs. Constitutionalist) regarding the role of the judiciary in American society.
But since a nomination to the Supreme Court is neither trivial, nor a game of Hollywood fantasy where the one who most realistically simulates an orgasm for a room full of cameramen gets the Golden Statuette (and a lot of hooting and hollering from one's peers), I'm impressed with the fact that the hard-core politicos of the Right, despite my initial misgivings, stuck fast to their principles and literally scuttled a second-tier SCOTUS nomination right off the map.
Speaking of maps . . . oh, where was I? Yes, Harriet Miers.
While the more sensitive (read: liberal leaning) among the Conservatives are dabbing at their eyes with plush, hypo-allergenic tissues and bemoaning the toll that the Miers hubbub has visited upon their uber-delicate sensitivities, the Conservatives who believe that ideas truly do matter, and that qualifications for a Supreme Court nomination extend beyond personal friendship with the President and a thumbs-up to the Constitution, are busy marshaling the troops for a show of force in support of the new nomination.
So much for the alleged Conservative Crackup.
Anybody who thought that Conservatives were headed for a crack-up just because Conservatives demand the very best candidate for a job, regardless of gender or skin color, are bound to be sorely disappointed as the groundswell of support for Judge Alito gathers, swells and rushes across the blogosphere to ultimately drown the Senate Confirmation hearings in waves of fact, well-considered analysis and downright spot-on journalism.
Which means that Slow Joe Biden and Vagina Monologue Feinstein will get their harebrained asses handed to them by the Conservative blogs (yet again), and we'll have a unanimously confirmed and superbly qualified addition to the highest court in the land.
Long live Judge Alito.
Now, back to the more important, burning question that inflames the tender soul and has been the cause of countless nights of restless, agonized fretting for tens of millions of Americans . . . Scooter LIbby who?
Comments
I'm still a little disappointed because I was a Judge Janice Rogers Brown fan.
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Homocon sez:
I know, but she was considered a much too controversial choice. I mean, they should have nominated her anyway, because the left is going to tar and feather anybody the Bush Administration puts forth anyway, so there's no sense in not going for the brass ring.
I think she would have been a terrific choice, and we would have had a fine legal mind on the bench should she have been nominated and confirmed . . . and the damn Kelo decision would be right out the window!
Posted by: Scott | October 31, 2005 9:10 PM
I'm just glad Harriet Miers pulled herself out of the running BEFORE the hearings. That would have been embarrassing. And there's nothing to be ashamed of by conservatives talking about criteria and quality. If anything, it shows that quality is job one for us. Liberals accept any old flunky as long as they legislate from the bench in favor of leftism.
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Homocon sez:
My sentiments exactly . . . ! It's funny to me that the left doesn't understand that the problem a lot of Conservatives truly had with Harriet Miers were her underwhelming qualifications. It wasn't about lashing out at the President over his big government spending or lackluster border policies, and it's not that anyone thought she wasn't qualified at all, but it was clear from the start that Miers was simply not the most qualified candidate for the job, and so seemed to have been chosen for other, lesser reasons, such as loyalty to the Administration, friendship with the President and a politically-correct gender. This kind of thing apparently doesn't bother most leftists whatsoever, but pisses off a huge number of Conservatives in a hurry.
Sam Alito is a step in a much better direction.
Posted by: Amy P | November 2, 2005 11:55 AM