The Right Yells Fire Over Miers


President Bush's selection of White House attorney Harriet Miers has given many conservatives the same feeling a five-year-old when told he’ll be having broccoli and not hamburgers for dinner.

Several prominent conservative polemicists have already begun the gnashing of teeth. Pat Buchanan has labeled Ms. Miers unqualified and the beneficiary of nepotism. Rush Limbaugh, the high priest of conservatism, was more charitable implying that the president's choice was due to political weakness. Rush's conservative callers were not so kind in their assessment. I am sure leggy-right winger Ann Coulter was zealously penning her acid-ink commentary within minutes of the announcement.

Though I will not be the first to say that Harriet Miers's nomination is a let down, I will state it just the same. Not being much concerned about whether Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement gets mad over the toilet seat being left up, I was hoping that Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael Luttig would have been picked.

A proven conservative jurist, Luttig had the credentials and most importantly the age, at a relatively young 51, to have made a significant contribution towards the rolling back of judicial liberalism that has contaminated our Federal Republic for the past half-century.

However, I was not surprised when the president announced his choice of Ms. Miers.

During the original handicapping for the O'Connor seat, back when Big Bill (Rehnqusit) was still wearing his gold bars, Appeals Judge Edith Brown Clement of the Fifth Circuit was considered John Roberts's main rival. Yet Clement's name never really surfaced in the second round for the same spot on the high bench, which was somewhat of a poker tell about the president's intentions.

So what of this latest enigmatic nominee?

First that she has enough of the president's confidence to have her investigate him for nasty "surprises" prior to his 1994 run for Texas governor, a common practice by candidates since a lawyer would be obligated to keep all information discovered confidential, covered under the attorney-client privilege.

Second, we know Ms. Miers has made some interesting campaign contributions. She donated $1,000 to then Tennessee US Senator Al Gore, but this was prior to his political metamorphosis from boll weevil to Captain Planet. A possible explanation for the donation could be that one of Ms. Miers's clients asked her to donate on his or her behalf, a tactic employed by some donors who prefer to remain anonymous.

It's also possible that a client or a friend asked her to donate to Gore as a favor since campaign finance laws have unreasonable maximum limits. This was cited as the reason why New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a black Democrat, contributed to George W. Bush's 2000 campaign.

Ms. Miers also gave to Lloyd Bentsen's re-election campaign as US Senator in 1988, but once again this was probably done more for professional reasons than political sympathy, since Bentsen was assured of re-election.

Republican candidates also received donations from Ms. Miers, including Texas Republican US Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm. Perhaps of some solace to anxious pro-lifers who have a lot at stake with the composition of the US Supreme Court is Ms. Miers's contribution to a Texas anti-abortion organization.

Understandably, these traces of conservative tendencies aren't very reassuring to conservatives. With the judiciary becoming increasingly aggressive in issuing "extra-constitutional" rulings and mandates, strict constructionists can't be blamed for being Doubting Thomases.

Too many “Trojan Horses” let inside the walls of the US Supreme Court by Republican presidents who have exhibited Whitmanesque poor judgment in their selections have burned conservatives. Remember, Justices Stevens, Souter, and "Judge Weathervane," Kennedy, were tapped by Republicans.

While conservatives are itching for a fight, the White House is looking for the path of least resistance. With the president's go-to man in the US House indicted and the US Senate Majority Leader under investigation, not to mention the tanking polls, the executive branch is not hankering for a battle that could backfire and endanger the GOP's 2006 chances.

This writer has already made a leap of faith with now Chief Justice Roberts and will once again give the benefit of the doubt for the same reason: President Bush cannot afford to be bitten by a liberal selection.

The prospect of a Jeb candidacy in 2012 or that of other members of the House of Bush for lesser offices would be forever haunted by a lingering liberal on the court. The president is far too shrewd of a politician not to consider this. For a man who places loyalty as the greatest of political virtues, it is doubtful for the president to entrust his legacy with an unknown quantity.

The US Senate Minority Leader has already painted himself into a corner by offering effusive praise for Ms. Miers and his Democratic colleagues might have a tough time playing roadblock. Furthermore, I anxiously await Ted Kennedy, brother to a president who appointed his brother Attorney General, to level accusations of cronyism and nepotism.

My biggest problem with Ms. Miers, assuming she will live up to Bush's campaign pledge to choose Scalias and Thomases for the judicial branch, is her age, 60. If she turns out to be the Scalia or Thomas Bush promised as a candidate then her impact won't be so great.

That same shortcoming could be a blessing if Ms. Miers proves to be the latest "d'oh" GOP appointment,