After George W. Bush's re-election, those speculating his lame duck status would hurt politically were laughed off. But combinations of scandal and disaster have done just that. Now, a weakened Bush can't even install his own lawyer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court Thursday after it became apparent her confirmation was not going to pass the Senate without a bruising battle. And the White House cannot afford the spectacle her hearings presented.
While the Miers nomination epitomized Bush's governing style-surround yourself with cronies whose chief qualification is unbridled loyalty to the cult of Bush-the venom with which his evangelical conservative base decried the nomination was startling. Liberal opposition to the grossly unqualified Miers was a given, but the speed and intensity of the revolt within his own party was unexpected.
The question now becomes, whom do they want? It's scary that Miers' conversion to evangelical Christianity earlier in life didn't pacify Bush's base. Her anti-abortion stance as the head of the Texas Bar Association didn't appease them either. Will no less than a Pat Robertson-type figure satisfy their demands? Is Rush Limbaugh next?
Miers said she withdrew her nomination because the burden it placed on the White House wasn't in the best interests of the country. Her nomination itself, however, wasn't in anyone's interest, except Bush's, because she was far from the best person for the job. Let's hope that the same can't be said for whomever is tapped next.
Cheer books, not pom-poms
Buffalo schools' proposed sports overhaul is style over substance
Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams's big ideas keep on coming.
The superintendent's plan to seek millions of dollars in corporate donations to overhaul Buffalo's public schools athletic programs is indicative of his corporate thinking. By looking to the Buffalo Bills, Nike, Reebok and other corporations for help, Williams has bypassed the traditional route for funding athletics. If successful, his trailblazing vision could become a model for struggling interscholastic programs nationwide.
The problem is that Buffalo's public schools have much more pressing needs at the moment than overhauled athletic programs. The bitter dispute between the teachers' union and the superintendent concerning health care insurers resulted in teachers, librarians, assistant principles and nurses being laid off. Class sizes have increased while attendance has fallen. And Williams is obsessing on cheerleader's uniforms?
It is undeniable that Buffalo's public school athletic programs are shortchanged. There are no junior-varsity teams in any sport and the equipment used is similar to what's found in a third-world country. Hockey and soccer participants pay their own way to play because the sports are deemed "clubs" and not funded by the Board of Education.
But fixing Buffalo's sports programs while his schools' academics are failing is wrong. Why doesn't Williams take his new funding model to textbook publishers, private colleges and businesses to help out with academic funding? Bringing back the educators let go would do much more for students than colligate-level sports programming.
