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Jewish World Review Oct. 21, 2005 / 18 Tishrei, 5766 The limits of stealth By Rich Lowry
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Republican presidents have long been drawn to the "stealth
strategy" on judicial nominations, picking conservatives, or
supposed conservatives, without a public record so it will be harder
for Democrats to oppose them. In the John Roberts nomination, a
modified stealth strategy reached its height, giving the court what
is likely to be a conservative chief justice for the next 30 years.
In the Harriet Miers nomination, the stealth strategy has all but
collapsed, producing what might be the most catastrophic political
miscalculation of the Bush presidency.
In picking Miers, the White House out-stealthed itself. The Bush
team isn't fully informed about its own nominee because the process
of selecting her was so secretive. She was such a blank slate that
many Bush supporters were opposed or noncommittal. In seeking
stealthily to avoid a confirmation fight, the White House has
instead set up one it might not be able to win.
It created a quarrel with the president's own political base,
much of which cares about excellence on the court and also wants a
nominee with a demonstrated conservative judicial philosophy. Many
conservatives — but not all — were underwhelmed with Miers on both
counts. This created a roiling split. The Miers nomination is a
"wedge issue" in reverse. The classic GOP wedge issues like crime
and welfare split Democrats, and set up nasty quarrels among
liberals. Miers has done it with the Right, as clashing
conservatives denounce one another as "elitists" and "hacks."
This weakens President Bush for any fight with the Democrats,
which is coming. In 1989 Miers filled out a candidate questionnaire
when she was running for the Dallas City Council, declaring her
support for an amendment to the Constitution banning abortion. It is
now impossible to doubt that Miers is pro-life. But did the White
House know about this questionnaire before it nominated her? It
might not have, because the vetting process for Miers was so
truncated, run in secret by her immediate subordinate. Thus the
insider nature of this nomination, crucial to its stealthiness,
possibly contributed to advancing a nominee who is extremely
non-stealthy in her views on abortion.
This sets up a battle on abortion and Roe v. Wade, the very
issue stealthiness was designed to sidestep. And it will make Miers
run a gauntlet — explaining to liberals how her personal views
don't mean she'll vote against Roe, while not further alienating
conservatives who oppose Roe — that even a more experienced nominee
would be taxed to survive. If this is the fight the White House
wanted, it should have nominated someone like Judge Edith Jones, who
is a lightning rod on Roe, but better prepared to defend herself.
Democrats have an abundance of ways to oppose Miers.
Qualifications is one. What made the Miers nomination especially
stealthy is that she is not obviously qualified for the court.
Documents is another. She has very little in the way of a public
record — a requirement for any stealth nomination — but the White
House says it knows she will be an excellent justice from her work
for the president. This is an opening for Democrats to say, "OK,
let's see the goods," creating a fight over executive privilege that
even Republicans might be leery of backing the White House on.
There is one way that stealthiness is helping Miers. Her
nomination would be in an even more precarious state if Republican
senators and members of Washington's conservative legal
establishment weren't too polite, cautious or cowardly to say
publicly what they really think about it. It's time for the pretense
to end.
The stealth strategy always had a whiff of deception about it.
In this nomination, the whiff is becoming a stink of contradiction
and bad faith. Republican senators should urge the White House to
withdraw the nomination. Then Bush can pick a nominee who
forthrightly represents his conservative judicial philosophy, and
everyone can have a bruising, up-front fight about it. What a
concept.
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© 2005 King Features Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
