Being in London, I do not have the benefit of insight from my colleagues in Austin who no doubt remember Ms. Miers when she was President of the State Bar of Texas. That the right-wing blogosphere and media are so displeased with Bush's choice suggests she may yet go down for the count in the Senate. (Is Ms. Miers a strategic ploy, as some have suggested, designed to make it all the harder to reject a more qualified, and perhaps more conservative, candidate yet to come? Who knows? I'm skeptical, as Bush has, throughout his bungled career, always been loyal-to-a-fault to those he is closest with, and Ms. Miers is in that inner circle.)
Her resume and career do not, needless to say, compare favorably to that of the new Chief Justice, John Roberts, though that may be the least of it, since stellar credentials do not necessarily guarantee good moral judgment, as we have had occasion to note with respect to the last nomination. More worrisome is that Ms. Miers is, it is reported, an evangelical Christian, a fact which is unlikely to influence her judgment in ways that favor cosmopolitan and Enlightenment values. At bottom, though, she is an unknown, even more so than Roberts. If any Texas readers with experience with Ms. Miers in professional or other contexts have insight, I'd be grateful to hear from you.
UPDATE: As luck would have it, Ms. Miers already has a blog!
ANOTHER: This from the far right National Review: "In the White House that hero worshipped the
president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met." This rather suggests that Ms. Miers does not get out enough. But more seriously, how is a Justice Miers likely to rule on the authority of the "brilliant president" to spirit away citizens to military brigs on his say-so?
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