October 05, 2005
Extreme Wisdom Supports the Confirmation of Miers
With all the combined chest-thumping, whining and simpering from the right regarding the Miers pick, we can now safely say that they have adopted the left's "hysteria" model of communication entirely.
Though I am in agreement with some of the critics regarding the cronyism involved in the choice, I'm pretty much convinced that Miers will be a good Supreme Court Justice.
Here's why.
First, I heard Hugh Hewitt last night. He had Ramesh Ponnuru (a Miers critic) on the air and took him apart. He did this by pointing out all the "Real World" experience that Miers has accumulated over the years.
It was interesting listening.
I'm convinced Miers is a good pick BECAUSE she is not from an elite school, and BECAUSE her experience is outside of the rarified air of the Harvard & Yale set.
It is good to have some of these folks on the Supreme Court. But it's good to have that balanced out by people who have real life experience as well.
Hewitt listed point after point (getting elected, serving as head of the Texas Bar, etc.) that indicated that Miers if FAR MORE LIKELY to be immune from the leftward drift that marks so many past and present justices.
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Want more proof? Continue.
This is straight from my favorite blog - Brother's Judd
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Her roots aren't Ivy League (Marvin Olasky and Peter Olasky, October 5, 2005, LA Times)
Q: WHAT DOES Harriet Miers, a highly successful lawyer, longtime member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas and confidant of the president of the United States, want more than anything else?A: The approval of the faculty of Yale Law School.
Or at least that is the fear among conservatives. They worry that although Miers is believed to be a pro-life evangelical conservative, she — like David Souter and Anthony Kennedy before her — will be seduced by liberalism. As former Bush speechwriter David Frum noted after Miers was nominated, "The pressures on a Supreme Court justice to shift leftward are intense." Frum noted "the sweet little inducements — the flattery, the invitations to conferences in Austria and Italy, the lectureships at Yale and Harvard — that come to judges who soften and crumble."
Ah, yes, the sweet little inducements: Washington dinner parties, laudatory editorials from the nation's great liberal newspapers and, perhaps most important, praise from the smug savants back at dear old Yale or Harvard. Many leading lawyers never forget their roots in the Ivy League, where all-knowing professors throw laurels on judges who "get it" and scorn those who don't. Forget Austria: It takes a very strong (or very principled) constitution to do without that intellectual flattery.
But perhaps that makes Miers the perfect candidate. Perhaps it takes someone who did not go to Harvard or Yale and has never seemed to care. Miers went to law school at Southern Methodist University, which, although a well-respected institution, was unlikely to have been a bastion of progressive thought when she entered it in 1970.
All you really need to know about the neocon fury at this pick is that David Frum is a Yale graduate with a JD from Harvard. It's about class and religion, not qualifications.
Posted by Bruno Behrend at October 5, 2005 10:14 AM
Comments
I agreee on the real life experience. This was a good pick.
Posted by: Bill Baar at October 5, 2005 04:58 PM
While real life experience can be a positive, its not a guarantee she is a true conservative with rock solid view of judicial duty and restraint. Many leading conservatives are unsure of Meirs. Some touting Meirs publically disagree with the nomination in private, see James Taranto's Best of the Web in friday's edition of Opionjournal.com.
We are at a once in a lifetime opportunity and we cannot afford a mistake. The opposition of conservative commentators and academics is unprecidented. Democrats are defending Meirs. Arlen Spector was quoted as saying Meirs hearings may be delayed because she simply is not well versed enough in the Consitutional questions to go before the Senate.
The Presidents nominee needs more time to bone up on the Constituiton. This is incredible. I'm all for real world experience but you don't make a regional manager of McDonald's the Fed Chairman.
As far as elitism is concerned, this holds no water since many of the leading candidates mentioned prior to Meirs were not Ivy league grads. Priscilla Owen - Baylor Janice Rogers Brown University of Virginia. Elitism argument falls apart. Do you honestly feel a similar discontent amongst conservatives would result from an Owen or Brown nomination. No, there would be praise and gratitude for Bush in return for his fidelity to his campaign promises.
Bruno this issue is not settled by a long shot. These hearings will be interesting if she lasts that long.
Posted by: BrianR. at October 9, 2005 01:27 AM