I’ll admit it. While getting ready for class this morning and watching Bush’s press conference on CNN, when he officially nominated Harriet Miers to be O’Connor’s replacement on the Supreme Court, the first thing I said was, “who the hell is she?” That’s right, I had no clue who Harriet Miers was until this morning around seven o’clock. Shame on me. Just as I didn’t know who Chief Justice Roberts’ was until after Bush nominated him. Apparently she’s a trailblazer for women-attorneys down in the Lone Star State. A very commendable thing in that regard in my opinion. But I am both really anxious and just dying to see her paper-trail, her memos, letters, etc. There’s always a paper-trail. There’s already some blurbs on the news and blogosphere of her being “too loyal” to Bush and his administration’s ideology. Well nearly all potential justices share the views of the president who nominates them–duh. Still, I can’t wait to see the paper-trail. I doubt she’s this completely “blank slate” the news pundits keep repeating. And I wonder what the Dems will do this time around.
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The problem with Miers, or one of the problems, is most of her paper trail is going to stay hidden. She’s been a private attorney, and the President’s attorney. The administration is going to keep any of those documents from the public, just like they did with Roberts. But there’s nothing else on this woman.
And in terms of being “too loyal,” this woman by most accounts is a Bush crony, and little else. That’s way worse than just sharing ideology.
For what it’s worth, I just arrived from The Volokh Conspiracy, where Orin Kerr Reactions from the Conservative Blogosphere
My favorite one is:
Bush nominated her, so she probably is at least somewhat conservative. Conservatives were probably hoping the man they voted into office would appoint a proven conservative.
According to Stone Court, she’s never been a judge.
But then again, George W. Bush has never been in the military, and look what a wonderful, outstanding job he’s been doing fighting this war.
(Sarcasm.)
Lucia—let the Republicans keep sending you shit. It costs them money to do it: printing, postage, bookkeeping, etc. If you are not sending them any money, then they are losing money by keeping you on their mailing list. It’s like a negative donation, and if I could stomach getting Republican crap all the time (not to mention having the post office people think I’m a Republican), I’d send them five bucks, and reap $15 or $20 worth of Republican junk mail.
Hadn’t she returned to Texas in recent history because of a conflict with the family and Washington pressure? I believe she returned only recently to Washington to help Bush in his time of need.
Bush is one clever little dude when he wants to be, this is a very sharp political move. How come his theology and worldview are not this clever? Blessings.
Kyra,
That wasn’t me telling the RNC not to send stuff; I was quoting someone.
As it happens, I live in Dupage Co. Illinois. Neither my husband nor I sends the RNC any money, but I’m sure we get at least $20 of junk mail every year. My husband somehow got on the RNC phone list, and they call him– but only during daytime hours when he’s at work and I’m at home.
I always answer. I try to be “helpful” and offer to answer their questions, but they won’t speak to me. :(
Sorry. Answered that when I just got out of class, and my brain was turned off.
Don’t worry Kyra; it’s a good idea anyway.
According to what I read on Free Republic (a rather … strenuous … site) the lady is on record as having donated $150 to “Texans for Life” in 1989 while on the Dallas City Council and tried to get the ABA to put it’s pro-abortion rights policy to a referendum of the entire membership, rather than just a vote of it’s policy-making body. She apparently said that in the absence of such a referendum the ABA should take a neutral stance rather than take a position that presumes to speak for all lawyers on such a divisive issue.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Reid (D-NV) supports the nomination, and says that there have been about 39 other nominees that have ha no judicial experience prior to appointment to the Supreme Court.
Rock’s thinking of Karen Hughes.
She’s the lawyer who reviewed Bush’s National Guard records in 2000 and said there was no evidence he’d gone AWOL. FWIW.
Thanks Nancy. You are right; the memory is trickling back now. Blessings
I was so surprisingly impressed with Roberts that I am willing to keep an open mind with Miers. The yardstick appears to favor those who will impartially interpret the law and refrain from legislating from the bench. If this holds true for Miers as it seems to have for Roberts, perhaps we are in good shape.
Eagerly awaiting the process.
b.
A little more info on her: ABC news said she donated $1000 to Al Gore’s 1988 (?) Presidential bid and to Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s (D-TX) re-election campaign the same year.
It has also been pointed out that her lack of judicial expertise is matched by the late William Rehnquist (sp?), who also never sat on any other bench besides that of the Supreme Court.
Impressed with Robert’s what, Beezus? His ability to dodge, duck and refrain from hundreds of questions? Yeah, that was mighty impressive.
I’ve read buzz as well that Miers is a strategic move, in that the administration is expecting her to get turned down so that Gonzales can be put up next. Basically putting up a pawn to be knocked down before the real candidate comes into play.
My boss is active in the American Bar Association. As a member of the Bar’s chamber of deputies Miers led a charge against a resolution that called for women to have freedom of choice – and it got revoked. My boss remembers her as very pro-life. This was 15 years ago however. Also as a personal note my boss was a co-chair of an ABA committee and Miers called the meeting without letting her know forcing her to resign. After hearing this I am very confused as to why the conservative people are saying she’s not far right enough. It sounds like she has definite views on Roe vs. Wade and she is anti-choice, and this should be on record somewhere in ABA newsletters or journals.
I just read the comments more carefully and my boss’s recollections seem to track with what RonF said he heard from Free Republic. Again she must have made a public statement at that time. Also she donates to pro-life organizations? I don’t care that she also donated to Gore or whatever, if she cares enough about pro-life stuff that she donates $$ to it, then she has definite views on it.
Impressed with Robert’s what, Beezus? His ability to dodge, duck and refrain from hundreds of questions? Yeah, that was mighty impressive.
Federal judicial nominees never have answered direct questions along the lines of how they would vote on given issues. And that includes the current holders of Supreme Court seats. The Senators know this, too; asking such questions is simply pandering to the camera. They know up front that they’re not going to get answers to those questions, and it would be unethical for the nominees to answer them.
lucia; you live in DuPage County and you don’t send the RNC money? Geez, do any of your neighbors talk to you?
According to Stone Court, she’s never been a judge.
neither had Rehnquist — it’s not as uncommon as you think.
as for crony-dom, I think she’s a crony among cronies — says she thinks Bush is one of the brightest men she’s ever met, and, more importantly, is the person who was in charge of making his National Guard problems go away back when he was running for governor — see this for an excellent overview of why she was a likely choice, even though most folks hadn’t heard of her…
cronies with major political debts to be repaid. that’s been the pattern every time.
the lack of a paper trail is just icing on the cake — she’s probably a winger, but noone will be able to prove it.
You want the paper trail, P-A ?
http://www.counterpunch.org/frank10042005.html
…According to the InterNet Bankruptcy Library (IBL), Locke Liddell & Sapp paid $22 million in a suit alleging it aided a client in defrauding investors. The Dallas-based firm agreed in April of 2000 to settle a suit stemming from its representation of Russell Erxleben, a former University of Texas football star whose foreign currency trading company, Austin Forex International, was a pyramid get-rich Ponzi scheme.
Erxleben later pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and securities-fraud charges. “It’s a very simple legal proposition: a lawyer can’t help people steal money,” George, of George & Donaldson told reporters at the time. George’s firm had represented investors who lost close to $34 million in Erxleben’s company.
All this was going on while Harriet Miers was co-managing partner of the law firm at the time. Miers denied that settling the suit indicted that they her firm was somehow complicated in Erxleben’s criminal activities. “Obviously, we evaluated that this was the right time to settle and to resolve this matter and that it was in the best interest of the firm to do so,” Miers said…
–Joshua Frank at Counterpunch 10/4/05
You can spout off about Ginsberg all you want, but no judge has ever been as non-forth coming as Roberts in anywhere near recent history, especially with the questions that surrounded his record. Statements like this are simply conservative sound-off’s that attempt to make this charade of strong arming seem legitimate, with the implicit threat of the nuc-option being the enforcer that stands menacingly behind them, and they want people to ignore it and pretend like all is happening under the most legitimate of circumstances. I stopped buying that shit long ago, so you’ll have to address these comments to someone more willing to buy into the rhetoric if you want to do any convincing. It’s extremely obvious that Roberts is and was a Republican shill.
As for Miers, I’m sure we’ll get more of the same. We’ll have a cacophony of quacking surrounding the mess, with a bunch of conservatives adamantly denying any ducks in the vicinity.
lucia; you live in DuPage County and you don’t send the RNC money? Geez, do any of your neighbors talk to you?
Actually, they do! But, I live in Lisle. We’re the wild town! Lisle lets the grocery stores sell liquor and bread at the same checkout counter.
My two brothers-in-law live in Wheaton — just down the street from Wheaton College. They broke a long tradition of no beer at the block parties.
Thanks alsis, for your link. There’s always a paper trail, somewhere. You just have to look for it.
Hey, look, let’s be reasonable. She bailed Bush out of his National Guard AWOL trip, thus scratching his back. Now it’s his turn. No favor goes unrewarded.
As far as the Dems….if Reid is any indication, they’ll roll right over, like they are prone to do in their incessant need to appear more Republican, than the Republicans are.
Miers is Bush’s personal lawyer. That is why she was nominated. Bush does everything on a personal basis. What she means for the Roe vs. Wade question is totally unclear to me at this point. I have heard that she is born-again and pro-life, but maybe this is to appease the radical clerics.
Thanks for the link alsis. I’m sure there will be more of that to come and probably none will put me at ease about Miers.
Just to quickly toss in my two cents, in regards to this comment:
Federal judicial nominees never have answered direct questions along the lines of how they would vote on given issues. And that includes the current holders of Supreme Court seats.
I was talking to one of my professors about the Roberts hearings as well as the upcoming Miers hearings and he was saying the real question is not how a candidate would rule on a case like Roe, but rather what is the reasoning that is going to be applied. Answering direct questions tends not to be helpful becasue the candidate can always say that they will follow established precedent without having to get at whether they agree with the actual judicial approach. And I kinda have to agree with him. Roberts can say that he wouldn’t overturn Roe because its established precedent, but when faced with a related case what type of reasoning is he going to apply? How does he view the role of the judiciary? Saying that you’ll follow the logic of (insert your judge here) truly means nothing to most Americans.
Miers worries me because at least Roberts has been a judge and has been placed in situations where he had to apply various types of judicial review and think about the above questions. Miers, while a “pioneering” attorney is relatively unproven and her lack of experience is troubling. I also don’t think she is going to be anywhere near as helpful to women’s rights as some groups purport.
This isn’t to say that direct questions aren’t ever helpful, but it would be nice if one of the senators would really keep at Miers and get her to explain her consitutional approaches.
Back to studying……
But Harry Reid thinks she’s just swell, P-A. Doesn’t that make your day ?
:p
Yep. It sure does, alsis.
Ugh….
What will the Dems do, you ask? Well, roll over and confirm, of course.
I’m thinking that it’s time to cut to the chase. I’m going to start selling my vote on ebay. These fuckwits have been selling me out without my consent for years now. Might as well cut out the middleman –ie the Party machine– and deal with the assholes directly. Since they are determined to sell out my rights for the sake of their new boat or whatever, the least they can do is pony up a few bucks so I can hire a passel of lawyers who might be some small assistance in buying my rights back. I’m thinking that a starting bid of $499, with a “Buy It Now For $999 !” option would be a steal for any passing Party hack. Everyone should try it. :/
Yard sales are good sources of income for paying those attorney fees…:p