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Monday, October 03, 2005

Miers

I don't have a great deal of insight into this pick--I mean, who possibly could?

But I do have some quick-hit thoughts:

  • If she is confirmed, it will send the message that the most important thing for a nominee is inscrutability.  Had it been, say, Roberts and then McConnell, it would have been clear that credentials are paramount.  But Roberts and Miers are both people without a paper trail on the issues that currently drive the parties' bases.  This has become the driving feature of the nomination game.  (In this sense, I don't agree with Orin that Miers is the anti-Roberts.)
  • Cultural conservatives are angry.    Public Advocate has announced that it will actively oppose the nomination.  At the same time, some political liberals will reflexively oppose the nomination under the theory that anyone Bush picks must be bad, and they will seize on her lack of credentials as the principled basis for their reaction.  They should be careful what they wish for, though.  Imagine: if the left kills the nomination (with an assist from the right), it might present Bush the opportunity to slide in a confirmed conservative with excellent Supreme Court credentials--and it would not be easy to oppose such a nomination.  Sustaining two fierce oppositions would be difficult.  And it would be even more difficult to prevent the confirmation of a well-credentialed nominee after attacking the Miers pick for her lack of credentials.
  • Won't she have to recuse herself from a number of cases, given her job as Bush's lawyer?

Posted by Hillel Levin on October 3, 2005 at 11:14 AM in Hillel Levin | Permalink

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» Miscalculation from The Debate Link
So, the nominee is Harriet Miers, who is without a doubt very qualified--just not for this job. As so often is the case, my views parallel Legal Fiction: I'll listen to what she has to say--but this sounds remarkably like a judicial version of Michae... [Read More]

Tracked on Oct 3, 2005 6:13:04 PM

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