The Wrong Stuff

Hmmm…so Harriet Miers has withdrawn. Undoubtedly a blow to President Bush, and I will gladly accept any development that troubles him and undermines his cartel’s stranglehold on Washington. But this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a victory for "our side." If anything, it is a demonstration of the frightening proportions to which the power of the religious right has grown. They served notice that they were the elephant upon whose back Bush rode to victory in 2004, and that they were going to accept nothing less than his complete capitulation to their "litmus test" for what constitutes an acceptable Supreme Court nominee.  Which, I suspect, will be at its most stringent for any female candidate, simply by virtue of the fact that, as a woman, she might harbor a secret sympathy for women's issues.

Yes Harriet Miers was a pitiful choice. An example of Bush’s policy of bullheaded, inappropriate cronyism at its worst. She was unqualified, undignified, and unprepared. Unfortunately, these are not the reasons she withdrew in disgrace. She withdrew because this choice of our most conservative president in recent memory could not prove herself conservative enough. Anyone in this country who leans even slightly left of center, indeed, even slightly left of extreme right, should be afraid—be very afraid—of the next candidate the President is prompted to put forth…

Sidenote:  Interesting, too, how Miers' announcement was timed to put a little blood in the water to decoy whatever media frenzy was preparing to attack the possible Fitzgerald indictments. The Bush Media Machine spins on...