A Pretty Good Nomination, Considering....

Despite all the yapping and hand-wringing from the far right operating though publications like National Review and The Weekly Standard;not to mention the right-wing blogosphere and  the Fox News Channel, the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court looks to be a pretty good one. It’s good for the country and good for Mr Bush.

It’s certainly the best that Mr Bush can do these days when it comes to high court appointments. Or any appointment for that matter.

Based on what we know about her, Ms Miers  is, thankfully,  no ideologue. Her experience has been as a private lawyer for corporate interests and as a personal lawyer to the president. She has some experience in dealing with public policy issues as a member of the White House staff and is more likely than not to be someone of a more or less practical, pragmatic nature.

All of which is annoying to the far right. A good example of this annoyance may be found in David Frum’s Diary  today. He basically damns Ms Miers outright with faint praise. He says that while  Harriet Miers is a nice person, her nomination is no good because nobody knows whether or not Ms Miers is a right-wing ideologue. And another thing, Frum say, Ms Miers has a “taut, nervous, anxious personality.”

Really?

So what.

Since when are  Supreme Court justices appointed on the basis of personality? Even if Mr Frum’s analysis of her personality is correct, that has nothing to do with her ability to do her job as a justice. It certainly doesn't seem not affect her ability to do her current job as a White House Counsel. Mr Bush sure hasn’t complained about her personality;-- and he’s known her for years.

What the Weekly Standard and NRO-type scribblers don’t understand, is that the president is politically weak just now. Even if he wanted a hard-right ideologue, he can’t afford one. And he sure can’t afford a any kind of knock-down drag-out fight over a nomination.

It doesn’t look like he has  the political will, or capital or whatever you want to call it, for any kind of fight right now.

Of course, what Frum, Kristol and the rest of them really want, is a Robert Bork-style ideologue on the Supreme Court. One that will overturn Roe v. Wade.

Well, they aren’t going to get one.

Mr Bush can’t afford one, and the country doesn’t want one. Period.

The far right is simply going to have to live with a non-ideological conservative judge on the Supreme Court.

Ms Miers is 60 years old now so they’re going to have to live with her for a very long time.

Frum and company’d best count themselves lucky and get used to it.

Find something else to complain about.

Punditwalla--