The argument for Miers

There has been a lot of complaining this week about President Bush nominating Harriett Miers to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Complaints have included a perceived lack of intellectual heft (ie: went to wrong school), cronyism, a lack of a track record (never been a judge), and not the heavy weight the base wanted. And those are just the complaints from the Republicans. John Hawkins of Right Wing News has done nothing this week except complain about Miers selection. Today a couple conservative heavy weights speak out in favor of Miers, Newt Gingrich and Thomas Sowell. Sowell also explains that if the base has a complaint about the nominee not being a conservative firebrand that it should blame the senate rather than the president.

President Bush has taken on too many tough fights -- Social Security being a classic example -- to be regarded as a man who is personally weak. What is weak is the Republican majority in the Senate.

When it comes to taking on a tough fight with the Senate Democrats over judicial nominations, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist doesn't really have a majority to lead. Before the President nominated anybody, before he even took the oath of office for his second term, Senator Arlen Specter was already warning him not to nominate anyone who would rile up the Senate. Later, Senator John Warner issued a similar warning. It sounded like a familiar Republican strategy of pre-emptive surrender.

Before we can judge how the President played his hand, we have to consider what kind of hand he had to play. It was a weak hand -- and the weakness was in the Republican Senators.

Don't get me wrong, there are others giving Miers a fair shake but they are few and far between. While Hugh Hewitt and Beldar have been very positive about the nomination they are clearly in the minority. You will not find a clearer refutation of each criticism of Miers than at Beldar's Blog (run by a Texas attorney with some inside info). Personally, I don't know enough about the nominee to applaud the choice or the criticize. I would recommend the critics hold their fire until the hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee. I was impressed with John Roberts but didn't fully appreciate his selection until I saw his performance before the committee.