For some calm and non-elitist Conservative perspective on the Miers nomination, try Michael Barone and Thomas Sowell. Sowell takes the view that the Admin shouldn't be punished for other Administrations' mistakes --only its own-- and adds the point that Bush isn't weak, but Republicans in the Senate are. Which adds to Bob Novak's view that the Senate R's told Bush ahead of time they wouldn't fight for alleged first choice Priscilla Owen. I'm a little skeptical of Novak's report, though. For better or for worse, this President pretty much means what he says, and he said he appointed Miers because
I've given a lot of thought to the kind of people who should serve on the federal judiciary. I've come to agree with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote about the importance of having judges who are drawn from a wide diversity of professional backgrounds. Justice Rehnquist himself came to the Supreme Court without prior experience on the bench, as did more than 35 other men, including Byron White.I find the comparison with White telling, since he was not a Constitutional scholar (he was Bobby Kennedy's deputy at Justice) and he was one of the two sole dissenters in Roe (and although he concurred in Griswold, it was not on the ground of penumbral emanations --he had his own reasons).
The one doubt that is raised in my mind is that if the President thinks the way I say he does, he oughtn't to send Ed Gillespie out to call movement Conservatives elitists and sexists; they ought to say what the President himself has said. But anyway, really and truly and fer shure, I am shutting up on this topic until the hearings. (Unless of course someone really needs a slap.)
