|
|
|
Jewish World Review Oct. 20, 2005 / 17 Tishrei, 5766 She's already failed By Michael Goodwin
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
There are so many problems with Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court that it's hard to know where to begin. But it is easy to know where to end: Miers is not ready for prime time.
The final straw is a plan to delay the start of her Senate confirmation hearings, tentatively set for Nov. 7. It seems Miers has some cramming to do before she can face the Judiciary Committee. She needs, Sen. Chuck Schumer says, "some time to learn" about key constitutional cases. The panel chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), was quoted as saying, "It is unfair to start the hearings before she's ready."
Before she's ready? In plain English, they're talking about remedial education. Not since the City University of New York ended the insidious practice of dumbing down its standards has a government institution stooped so low to accommodate an unqualified applicant.
That it is the Supreme Court at stake is astonishing. It's as if the Yankees said the owner has hired a new star center fielder, but first they have to teach him how to hit a baseball. It wouldn't happen there, and it shouldn't happen in the court.
The only good thing about the nomination is that it may lead to bipartisan Senate unity. Conservative Republicans are sounding like liberal Democrats in their thrashing of President Bush. And Democrats, though they have wisely kept quiet as Republicans fight their civil war, can't be happy with the news that Miers once supported a constitutional ban on most abortions.
Indeed, nobody can really want her on the court. Nobody except another Roman Hruska, the late Nebraska senator who 35 years ago famously defended G. Harrold Carswell's nomination with damning praise. "Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers," Hruska said. "They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they?"
The answer is yes in Congress, but no on the Supreme Court. While I don't know whether Miers is mediocre, her answers to a Senate questionnaire certainly suggest as much. Her writing is dutiful and textbookish to the point of civics course pablum.
"The judicial branch has its own role to play in the separation of powers. It is part of the system of checks and balances," was part of her long, meaningless answer on judicial activism.
Perhaps the best thing Bush has done lately was to nominate John Roberts as chief justice. That Roberts, a brilliant jurist, would be joined by Miers is unfair to both. She would so quickly be out of her league that it would be embarrassing. And she might, like Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, go silent in public. And, like Thomas has with Antonin Scalia, she might just copy the votes of another justice.
Yet Bush is not having second thoughts. Instead, he's rebooting the campaign to win backing for her, a move that apparently means he won't repeat the bonehead statement that "part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
The slip, if it was a slip, was a clue to her real qualifications in his mind: She's an evangelical Christian. And she fits his other goal: to replace Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman.
I don't object to Bush looking for a woman. Diversity is important. Excellence is more important. Settling for anything less is a dereliction of duty.
Miers, her supporters say, is honest, loyal and hardworking. And her career path reflects talent and tenacity. But many people fit that definition. I know a few myself — and none of them belongs on the Supreme Court. Neither does Harriet Miers.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, NY Daily News Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles | |||||||||||
