When bad motives come home to roost
I posted before about the qualifications I thought Pres. Bush should seek to advance with his second Supreme Court nominee (before he named Miers): talent, a clean closet (as in no skeletons), and a leaning towards conservative thought.
Miers' nomination brought into question all 3 of those things. However, the BIGGEST problem I had with Miers was that Bush CLEARLY didn't address my biggest concern: that he narrowed his selection field down based solely on physical attributes rather than legal. From the word go, the administration seemed pretty free to admit that Bush wanted to nominate a woman, and that just isn't the purest motive to bring to the ballpark.
Now if he had found a talented, baggage-free conservative-minded woman to nominate to the Supreme Court out of a LEGITIMATE search that included many other skilled jurists/lawyers of all backgrounds, then I would have been happy as a clam. But it appears that such was not the case. . .
And if you think that Miers' withdrawl is the end of that debacle for the GOP, think again.
As it stands right now, I think the entire Miers debacle is going to be a major thorn in the side of the GOP for many cycles to come.
While those in the "punditry" game understand that there was much more at stake with the Miers nomination than simply gender quotas, I am willing to bet that the casual observer on the street doesn't "get" those issues. What the casual observer on the street is going to see is that the President nominated a woman to fill a "woman's" spot on the Supreme Court--and the GOP said not just no, but hell no!
Forget about the qualifications (or lack thereof), forget about the absence of background as a jurist--forget all that. Since Bush made this nomination at least in part about gender, it will henceforth be known as a nomination ENTIRELY about gender. And the bottom line: the GOP said no to a woman.
All that work that our party (major kudos to Ken Mehlman, by the way) has done the past couple years to "reach out" and make us "not your father's crodgety ol' GOP" is on the brink of being washed away 'cuz the PARTY looks to be on the wrong side of the gender equality issue.
SO, in that vein, I propose drastic action: the next Bush nominee HAS GOT TO BE A WOMAN. I hate saying that, because it goes against what I really feel should be done with this cherished spot on the SCOTUS, but sometimes you have to play politics, and the only way the GOP can hope to minimize the impact of the Miers fiasco is to put a woman up in her stead.
Otherwise, I think we're setting our party back many years in the fight to expand our "tent". And we just can't have that.
I sure hope Janice Rogers Brown has her cell phone by her side.
Miers' nomination brought into question all 3 of those things. However, the BIGGEST problem I had with Miers was that Bush CLEARLY didn't address my biggest concern: that he narrowed his selection field down based solely on physical attributes rather than legal. From the word go, the administration seemed pretty free to admit that Bush wanted to nominate a woman, and that just isn't the purest motive to bring to the ballpark.
Now if he had found a talented, baggage-free conservative-minded woman to nominate to the Supreme Court out of a LEGITIMATE search that included many other skilled jurists/lawyers of all backgrounds, then I would have been happy as a clam. But it appears that such was not the case. . .
And if you think that Miers' withdrawl is the end of that debacle for the GOP, think again.
As it stands right now, I think the entire Miers debacle is going to be a major thorn in the side of the GOP for many cycles to come.
While those in the "punditry" game understand that there was much more at stake with the Miers nomination than simply gender quotas, I am willing to bet that the casual observer on the street doesn't "get" those issues. What the casual observer on the street is going to see is that the President nominated a woman to fill a "woman's" spot on the Supreme Court--and the GOP said not just no, but hell no!
Forget about the qualifications (or lack thereof), forget about the absence of background as a jurist--forget all that. Since Bush made this nomination at least in part about gender, it will henceforth be known as a nomination ENTIRELY about gender. And the bottom line: the GOP said no to a woman.
All that work that our party (major kudos to Ken Mehlman, by the way) has done the past couple years to "reach out" and make us "not your father's crodgety ol' GOP" is on the brink of being washed away 'cuz the PARTY looks to be on the wrong side of the gender equality issue.
SO, in that vein, I propose drastic action: the next Bush nominee HAS GOT TO BE A WOMAN. I hate saying that, because it goes against what I really feel should be done with this cherished spot on the SCOTUS, but sometimes you have to play politics, and the only way the GOP can hope to minimize the impact of the Miers fiasco is to put a woman up in her stead.
Otherwise, I think we're setting our party back many years in the fight to expand our "tent". And we just can't have that.
I sure hope Janice Rogers Brown has her cell phone by her side.
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