While the nation speculated on Bush's pick for the Sandra Day O'Connor vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, it should have been obvious who he would choose in the end. Bush is a man who values loyalty to his family above all else, and as the White House and the GOP find themselves overrun with charges of insider cheating and cronyism at every turn, Bush picked his own lawyer, and longtime member of his inner circle, to fill the vacant slot.
The nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the court represents the cronyism that has marked Bush's tenure in office from day one. Though Miers is a trailblazer of sorts for being the first woman to lead the Texas Bar Association, she has no experience as a judge and does not have a reputation as a legal scholar. In short, she is not qualified to sit on the court. The Senate should reject her selection, sending Bush a message to do better. The nation deserves more than another Bush family friend.
Miers has no judicial or legislative record for Senators to scrutinize. Democrats, who have shamefully supported numerous unqualified Bush nominees for important posts in the past, will have a hard time sorting out her position on key social issues because she has never made them publicly known. Miers has the respect of many across the political spectrum, but has shown herself to be a Bush activist who accepted a plum partisan appointee job as the head of the Texas lottery commission when he governed Texas. This in itself isn't bad but hardly qualifies her for a judgeship. A prestigious Texas-based corporate law firm that she headed had to pay over $28 million to settle a suit that found it added a client in defrauding investors. While this might be business as usual for Bush's Enron crowd, it is troubling that he would push for her nomination with that background.
What is most disheartening about Miers is the role she played on behalf of Bush regarding his National Guard scandal. When Bush was gearing up for his gubernatorial reelection campaign in 1998, rumors that he had been kicked out of the guard for drinking and drug use were abound throughout Texas. Miers was retained for $19,000 to run a preemptive investigation and quickly identified potential problems for Bush who was already eyeing a presidential run. Once fixed, her status as a Bush loyalist was cemented. Being paid by Bush to fix politically sensitive problems demonstrates her scruples and shows she should not be trusted for impartiality once on the bench.
In addition to her advocacy for Bush in the past, Miers opposed the repeal of a law banning gay sex while running for a Dallas city council seat. As the head of the Texas Bar, she called for a fight against the pro-choice abortion stance the American Bar Association had adopted. These are not the actions of someone who has no stance on the social issues affecting our country but of one who is firm in her beliefs. If placed on the bench she will prove to be the ideological warrior conservatives pray for.
Perhaps the most important reason she doesn't have what it takes to sit on the Supreme Court comes from former Bush White House speechwriter David Frum. He reported, "In a White House that hero worshiped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal. She once told me the president was the most brilliant man she met." Enough said.
Cronyism reigns supreme
Bush's nominee for the nations highest court should be rejected
While the nation speculated on Bush's pick for the Sandra Day O'Connor vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, it should have been obvious who he would choose in the end. Bush is a man who values loyalty to his family above all else, and as the White House and the GOP find themselves overrun with charges of insider cheating and cronyism at every turn, Bush picked his own lawyer, and longtime member of his inner circle, to fill the vacant slot.
The nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the court represents the cronyism that has marked Bush's tenure in office from day one. Though Miers is a trailblazer of sorts for being the first woman to lead the Texas Bar Association, she has no experience as a judge and does not have a reputation as a legal scholar. In short, she is not qualified to sit on the court. The Senate should reject her selection, sending Bush a message to do better. The nation deserves more than another Bush family friend.
Miers has no judicial or legislative record for Senators to scrutinize. Democrats, who have shamefully supported numerous unqualified Bush nominees for important posts in the past, will have a hard time sorting out her position on key social issues because she has never made them publicly known. Miers has the respect of many across the political spectrum, but has shown herself to be a Bush activist who accepted a plum partisan appointee job as the head of the Texas lottery commission when he governed Texas. This in itself isn't bad but hardly qualifies her for a judgeship. A prestigious Texas-based corporate law firm that she headed had to pay over $28 million to settle a suit that found it added a client in defrauding investors. While this might be business as usual for Bush's Enron crowd, it is troubling that he would push for her nomination with that background.
What is most disheartening about Miers is the role she played on behalf of Bush regarding his National Guard scandal. When Bush was gearing up for his gubernatorial reelection campaign in 1998, rumors that he had been kicked out of the guard for drinking and drug use were abound throughout Texas. Miers was retained for $19,000 to run a preemptive investigation and quickly identified potential problems for Bush who was already eyeing a presidential run. Once fixed, her status as a Bush loyalist was cemented. Being paid by Bush to fix politically sensitive problems demonstrates her scruples and shows she should not be trusted for impartiality once on the bench.
In addition to her advocacy for Bush in the past, Miers opposed the repeal of a law banning gay sex while running for a Dallas city council seat. As the head of the Texas Bar, she called for a fight against the pro-choice abortion stance the American Bar Association had adopted. These are not the actions of someone who has no stance on the social issues affecting our country but of one who is firm in her beliefs. If placed on the bench she will prove to be the ideological warrior conservatives pray for.
Perhaps the most important reason she doesn't have what it takes to sit on the Supreme Court comes from former Bush White House speechwriter David Frum. He reported, "In a White House that hero worshiped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal. She once told me the president was the most brilliant man she met." Enough said.
