Bush Chooses Miers for Supreme Court
By Montag | Related entries in Breaking News, General Politics, Supreme CourtWhite House counsel Harriet Miers is Bush’s Nominee to replace O’Connor on the Supreme Court.
There’s been a lot of talk about how this nominee will likely face a much tougher battle than Roberts did. So, what are the dems saying already?
Reid
Democratic and Republican special interests groups had been braced for a political brawl over the pick, but they may not get it. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had urged the president to consider Miers, according to several officials familiar with Bush’s consultations with Congress.
Schumer
“We know even less about Harriet Miers than we did about John Roberts and because this is the critical swing seat on the court, Americans will need to know a lot more about Mier’s judicial philosophy and legal background before any vote for confirmation,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Elliot Mincberg (Q: Who?! A: counsel with the liberal People for the American Way. Q: Oh.)
“Choosing somebody who is not a judge would put that much more of a premium on straight answers to questions because there would be that much less for senators and the public to go on when looking at such a nominee’s judicial philosophy,” says Elliot Mincberg, counsel with the liberal People for the American Way.
For all the talk of how this battle was going to be so much more heated than the Roberts confirmation, it seems that Bush has taken (at least initially) some of the wind out of the dems sails with this nomination.
Associated Press: Bush Chooses Miers for Supreme Court
This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 and is filed under Breaking News, General Politics, Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:27 am
So it would seem. I have a colleague here who claims to know her. Says that as an attorney here in Dallas she did a lot of pro bono work and encouraged fellow lawyers to do the same as chair of the Texas Bar Assn. This guy is under the impression that she’s a fitting replacement for O’Connor, and will likely serve in a similar capacity.
As for judicial experience, she has never been a judge; instead she is a former member of the Dallas City Council.
October 3rd, 2005 at 12:08 pm
I am just not comfortable with someone who has no bench experience now being in charge of such monumental cases. It’s a totally different world from arguing before the bench. It makes about as much sense as a Chief Justice with
October 3rd, 2005 at 2:05 pm
I’m not much worried that she doesn’t have bench experience in and of itself. After all, some very good justices have served on the court with no previous judicial experience. I’m worried that she has demonstrated neither the mental capacity nor the staunch convictions which distinguished those great justices. The one word that has stuck in my brain after reading a bit about Ms. Miers, and that word is ’sycophant’.
In 1988, she donated $2,000 to Democratic party causes. 4 years later, she was leading a tenacious fight against supporters of Roe v. Wade. A reporter remembers her declaring that George W. Bush was the most brilliant man she had ever met. This doesn’t sound to me like someone who has firm, well-established convictions. It sounds like someone who hitches her fortunes to a political star and follows it zealously wherever it leads.
The problem is, of course, after GWB is no longer president, who does she hitch herself to? Will she become a Thomas disciple? Ginsburg? Will she remain uncommitted and flit from decision to decision, blowing with the prevailing wind? She may turn out to be a great justice, but nothing I’ve seen in her background so far suggests that. I prefer not roll the dice with the Supremes.
October 3rd, 2005 at 4:44 pm
Here’s a link to a post about Miers from Zathras of the Projection Blog:
http://theprojectionblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/80s-flashback-harriet-miers.html