Trust George W. Bush to take the unexpected path. Today's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has already confounded pundits and activists alike.
Last summer the Washington Post published a rare profile of her.
Miers's low-key but high-precision style is particularly valued in a White House where discipline in publicly articulating policy and loyalty to the president are highly valued. Formerly Bush's personal lawyer in Texas, Miers came with him to the White House in 2001 as staff secretary, the person who screens all the documents that cross the president's desk. She was promoted to deputy chief of staff before Bush named her counsel after his reelection in November. She replaced Alberto R. Gonzales, another longtime Bush confidant, who was elevated to attorney general."Harriet Miers is a trusted adviser on whom I have long relied for straightforward advice," Bush said at the time. "Harriet has the keen judgment and discerning intellect necessary to be an outstanding counsel."
When he was governor of Texas, Bush offered a less formal assessment at an awards ceremony, calling Miers "a pit bull in size 6 shoes." The line stuck, in no small part because it described her cool but dogged determination.
It's very early in the process. I suspect this from ABC's The Note is about the state of play right now.
Is Harriet Miers a trailblazing, conservative, consensus-y, strict constructionist?Or is she a bureaucratic, undistinguished, paper-pushing cipher-crony?
If her image by the time the Senate votes on her nomination is along the lines of Option 1, she will be confirmed easily, and the President will have gone a miraculous 2 for 2 in getting SCOTUS chairs filled without battle royales.
If her image by that time is more along the lines of Option 2, she will likely be confirmed after a long and hideous process that will include more than one deer-in-the-headlights moment.
UPDATE 10:43 p.m.: Well, the depths of despair and frustration among the conservative blogosphere and punditocracy today was surprising and more than a little pathetic. The right-wing chatting class seems to be divided among those spoiling for a SCOTUS cockfight, now mad that they may not get one, or those who want a Court candidate who will promise to overturn Roe v. Wade.
All will be revealed in the fullness of time and maybe Harriet Miers will be shown to be not-so-great, but frankly my gut reaction right now is to side with Mark Noonan at Blogs for Bush:
If there's anything dumber than liberal[s] these days, it is whiney [sic] conservatives who are acting like liberals when President Bush doesn't follow their advice.Posted by Alan at October 3, 2005 12:21 PM