{"id":5335,"date":"2005-10-03T15:06:55","date_gmt":"2005-10-03T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=5335"},"modified":"2005-10-03T15:06:55","modified_gmt":"2005-10-03T22:06:55","slug":"bush-puts-forth-harriet-miers-as-scotus-nominee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=5335","title":{"rendered":"Bush puts forth Harriet Miers as SCOTUS nominee"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the AP, “Miers known for staying out of limelight”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Among a host of qualities that White House counsel Harriet Ellan Miers shares with new Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts is the apparent lack of any personal legal agenda. Known for an exacting, no-nonsense style, Miers—like Roberts—tends to avoid the limelight.\n<\/p>\n

\nOnce described by White House chief of staff Andrew Card as “one of the favorite people in the White House,” Miers has been there for President Bush at every turn for more than a decade.\n<\/p>\n

\nShe was Bush’s personal lawyer in Texas, took on the thankless job of cleaning up the Texas Lottery when he was governor, and followed him to Washington to serve as staff secretary, the person who controls every piece of paper that crosses the president’s desk.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn 2004, Bush appointed her White House counsel, calling her “a talented lawyer whose great integrity, legal scholarship and grace have long marked her as one of America’s finest lawyers.” He articulated his high regard for her more memorably during a 1996 awards ceremony when he called her “a pit bull in size 6 shoes.”\n<\/p>\n

\nMiers, 60, has a string of firsts on her resume that track her quiet but steady march to the top echelons of power: first woman hired by her law firm in 1972, first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association in 1985, first woman president of the Texas State Bar in 1992, first woman president of her law firm in 1996.\n<\/p>\n

\nCard, in a 2003 interview with the publication Texas Lawyer, said Bush’s affinity for Miers is clear in the frequent invitations she receives to visit the presidential retreat at Camp David, “a privilege that is not enjoyed by a lot of staff.”\n<\/p>\n

\n“She’s a quiet, highly respected force and someone who is seen as not having any agenda other than the president’s,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nMiers was one of the candidates put forth by Harry Reid, which, on a gut level, makes me uncomfortable with the selection; Juan Williams, too, is happy, which gives me pause as well. But I confess to knowing so little about her that it’s difficult for me to comment one way or the other. \n<\/p>\n

\nI think many conservatives who were hoping for someone they know to be small government (like Janice Rogers Brown) will be disappointed; but Bush is extraordinarily loyal, he holds Miers in high regard, and—as the AP report notes—Miers brings with her the kind of nondescript, noncontroversial background that served John Roberts so well.\n<\/p>\n

\nLiberal reaction, so far, has started forming around the “cronyism” meme (Naomi Wolf is calling her a “stealth candidate”)—and around intimations about Miers’ sexuality, which at least one progressive champion of tolerance has taken pains to disguise as a “thought experiment,” attributing potential outrage about her bedroom proclivities to a cartoon of Christian fundies.  Here’s Pesky Apostrophe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The very first thing I thought is that the Christian religious extremists might have a problem with Miers.  She\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s 60, never been married, no children?  That should probably send up a red light with them.  Whether it\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s just that she\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s extremely devoted to her career or if she bats for the other team, you know they don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t truck with women who aren\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t committed to the penis and offspring and presenting the pot roast while wearing pearls.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nInteresting.  The very first thing I thought was “is she qualified?” But then I’m a little stodgy—and tend not to jump right to concerns over what kind of parties take place in a 60-year old cooch.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd here’s Wonkette’s, whose suggestiveness<\/a> is at least <\/a>clever:  it seems Miers gave equally to the campaigns of Bush and Gore, and also to the Senate campaigns of Hutchison and Bentsen.  Quips Wonkette, “Since Harriet Miers is a 60-year-old lifelong bachelorette, it should come as no surprise that she swings both ways. We just didn’t expect proof of it to come so soon…”\n<\/p>\n

\n(h\/t misunderestimated; Confederate Yankee<\/a>)\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the AP, “Miers known for staying out of limelight”: Among a host of qualities that White House counsel Harriet Ellan Miers shares with new Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts is the apparent lack of any personal legal agenda. Known for an exacting, no-nonsense style, Miers—like Roberts—tends to avoid the limelight. Once described by White House chief of staff Andrew Card as “one of the favorite people in the<\/p>\n

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