Harriet Miers Withdraws 6
Questions of politics and qualifications aside, I feel sorry for Harriet Miers. Whatever she expected when she accepted Mr. Bush’s offer of the nomination to the Supreme Court, she certainly did not sign up for the public flailing she received. And, to my mind, most of the fault lies with the persons who put her in this situation, not with her.
WASHINGTON — Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be a Supreme Court justice Thursday in the face of stiff opposition and mounting criticism about her qualifications.
Bush said he reluctantly accepted her decision to withdraw, after weeks of insisting that he did not want her to step down. He blamed her withdrawal on calls in the Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration has insisted were protected by executive privilege.
Follow the link for the full story.
October 27, 2005 at 4:34 pm
’tis a pity. It is only to be expected after the Bork and Thomas circuses though. It sadly seems that “advice and consent” now means litmus tests by and for partisans.
We didn’t know how Miers would decide on cases she heard, but then again, we didn’t know how any justice would rule once they were sitting.
O’Connor comes to mind as someone who set the bar as infuriating to fellow “conservatives.”
October 27, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Somebody needs to call Senator Reid and say, “Now Harry, if you like the next nominee, don’t say anything… just shut up…”
October 27, 2005 at 7:04 pm
Actually, I don’t think Mr. Reid had much to do with this one. This is a case of (at least some) Republicans eating their own young.
Here is Mr. Reid’s official statement on the matter:
http://reid.senate.gov/record2.cfm?id=246777
October 27, 2005 at 10:21 pm
He was the kiss of death, Frank. If he doesn’t realize that then he doesn’t understand how much conservatives distrust him.
The whole episode was hilarious, I think. Bush played Bob Barker and offered the country whatever was behind Door 3, and neither the right nor the left was game enough to take the chance. When I first heard she had withdrawn, my initial thought was, “Conservatives have blown it; I think she’d have been the type of justice they wanted.” But on the way home from work I heard Charles Krauthammer say that the big losers in this were the liberals, because if she would have been on the court she would have “grown in the job.”
(I got the definite impression the NPR interviewer didn’t know who Krauthammer was; when he mentioned some male possibilities for the next nominee she asked something about “but don’t you think there should be some diversity?”)
October 27, 2005 at 11:59 pm
“but don’t you think there should be some diversity?�
Would have loved to see the look on Charlie’s face. Do you happen to remember the reply?
October 28, 2005 at 8:49 am
[…] Miers, Reprise
Posted by Frank under The Comedy Around Us
Yesterday, I posted a short muse about Harriet Miers. An analysis of the failure of the nomination in today̵ […]