A Fun Time to Be in the Peanut Gallery

The big news today is obviously the Prez's nomination of pal Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. She's a crony who seems to bring nothing to the table except her devotion to W. She doesn't seem like a strong candidate under any circumstances, but it's especially entertaining to watch the far right flail against her. They wanted a flame-throwing, nail-spitting conservative who would promise to overturn Roe v. Wade at the first opportunity. Virtually nothing is known about Miers's views, but they’re assuming the worst. For a bit of a primer (although admittedly not a terribly illuminating one), you can browse through some online question-and-answer sessions she hosted last year when she was the President's Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. There are four, here, here, here, and here, and here's her White House bio.

Posting late in the day, I have the luxury of looking over some of the other blogs for juicy tidbits. When Miers's name came up last week, David Frum at The National Review Online wrote:

I believe I was the first to float the name of Harriet Miers, White House counsel, as a possible Supreme Court. Today her name is all over the news. I have to confess that at the time, I was mostly joking.

. . .
In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. She served Bush well, but she is not the person to lead the court in new directions--or to stand up under the criticism that a conservative justice must expect.

And Atrios kindly points us to John Podhoretz writing about Miers in the NRO blog, also on Thursday:

I am going to assume that this is a classic Bush head-fake gambit. If I'm wrong, I will spend the weekend banging my head against a concrete wall. This is the Supreme Court we're talking about! It's not a job for a political functionary!

Not surprisingly, Frum had more to say this morning, but someone at the blog for The Al Franken Show found something Frum said but wished he hadn't.

AMERICAblog has a quote from Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol:

It is very hard to avoid the conclusion that President Bush flinched from a fight on constitutional philosophy. Miers is undoubtedly a decent and competent person. But her selection will unavoidably be judged as reflecting a combination of cronyism and capitulation on the part of the president.

And it may be a good thing that the Senate never followed through with the nuclear option earlier this year. Billmon tells us that some conservative Repubs might want to filibuster Miers themselves.

Given all that, I guess it's up to each of us to decide just how disingenuous Harry Reid was being when he announced: "I like Harriet Miers."