On Harriet Meirs For SCOTUS

I wanted to wait a couple of days to respond to President Bush's nomination of Harriet Meirs to the Supreme Court of the United States. A variation on the don't go to bed angry rule -- and believe me, I was upset. My initial reaction can be summed up here. I figured I would wait, get some background on Ms. Meirs, read some analysis from those more knowledgeable on the topic than I. Very few of these analysts and "experts" captured the real reason behind my intense acid reflux, and that of many other Bush supporters and activits. George Will grasps the soul of the issue quite well, and no one has been more spot on with their analysis than Doug Williams at Bogus Gold. To check out Doug's commentary go here, here, here and here. Read it all.

One can assume that the adminstration felt that they did not have the votes to break a fillibuster and felt that a defeated nominee would damage the administration. It would, but not nearly as much as conceding before the battle. There are plenty of candidates, one would get through eventually as the public tired of obstruction. Harriet Meirs may be the most conservative, originalist judge ever. For the '06 elections and possibly even the '08 elections, that won't matter. Not enought time will pass for the base to believe she is not another Souter. Also, as George Will pointed out, the debate over judicial philosophy was one that needed to be aired and is one that would have seen the public come down on the side of conservative philosophy. With this nomination, that debate never happens.

The only thing that George W. Bush could have done to inflict more damage to the standing of the Republican Party with its base would have been to preside over a mass gay wedding while performing a late-term abortion and paying for the whole event with a tax hike.