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Thursday, October 06, 2005

You call this a credential?!

Never mind whether a degree from an elite law school is a necessary (or even important) credential for a Supreme Court nominee.  The Bush administration has trotted out a new "credential" to calm the fears of its religious conservative base: Miers is born again.

The intellectual right is appropriately livid.

I wonder how long the coalition between the anti-elitist/populist/evangelical and the neocon/fiscal conservative/libertarian wings of the Republican party can hold.

(Yes, I am well aware that the "wings" don't break down quite so neatly.  But I trust you take my point.)

Posted by Hillel Levin on October 6, 2005 at 10:04 AM in Hillel Levin | Permalink

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Comments

It really is beyond preposterous, isn't it? I mean, if the criterion is a born-again Christian who knows what sort of Judges President Bush wants, then presumably, Jimmy Carter is in the running for the gig?

This nomination has made a lot of people mad. I think the only possible outcomes are either that a) Bush withdraws the name, b) the Senate Confirms her, or c) Senate rejects her and the President uses a recess appointment. I've made comparisons of Kelo to Blazing Saddles before, well, this nomination is like Mongo; don't shoot him, sheriff, you'll only make him mad. If the Senate borks Miers, they'll only make Bush mad, and he'll do precisely what he did with John Bolton.

In either of the latter two instances, the moment she hits the Supreme Court bench, the clock is ticking. Miers will have less than a year to do something to massive rebuff social conservatives' concerns over her, to justify Bush's confidence. If she doesn't - either because she can't, or by sheer dumb luck because the opportunity simply doesn't present itself - there is a serious risk that the base will simply stay home in 2006, the result of which could be the loss of one or both sides of the Capitol.

Conservatives demanded a nominee that would make liberals cry themselves to sleep. Right now, it seems to me that Democratic strategists - and the Supreme Court's liberal bloc - are crying with laughter. Intellectual conservatism has been betrayed.

Posted by: Simon | Oct 6, 2005 11:43:14 AM

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