In my estimation, President Bush has made a very shrewed choice in his selection of Harriet Miers for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His poll numbers have plummeted to all time lows (only with slight increases lately), His management style has come under intense scrutiny due to Katrina and Rita (not unlike Reagan’s management approach), his top political adviser (among others) is in a legal morass, and the war in Iraq gains fewer supporters by the day (perhaps due to the almost exclusively negative reporting in the media). Thus, Bush has picked an appointee with stealth armour.
Bush says he is not a man moved by the polls, unlike his predecessor. But as the referenced article suggests, he may be making decisions that will impact his long-term legacy more than his current popularity. Both liberals and conservatives seem to be somewhat nervous about this pick. Conservatives are trusting that there is something Bush knows about Miers, due to their long and trusted political relationship, that the rest of the world does not know – and that until she is confirmed, she won’t tell. Seems to me there were similar hopes for Miss. Mier’s predecessor. James Dobson’s assurances that she is an evangelical Christian create no calm in my mind about how she will interpret the constitution – especially sincie “evangelical Christian” is a virtually meaningless term today.
President Bush is a shrewd politician. He has shrewed political advisers whispering in his ear. No man who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office for two terms avoids the question of his legacy. President Bush could have picked strong conservative voice. Instead, he chose an individual that will test the blind support he expects from conservatives and one who will challenge the covert moderate positions of many democrats.
For two interesting conservative perspectives, see:
Fred Barnes’ Reaction and Bill Kristol
Justin Taylor of Between Two Worlds blog ( http://theologica.blogspot.com/ ) has had some interesting posts on this.
Now into off topic mode.
I didn’t want my response to your question about RSSreader to get lost on my blog, so I posted it there and here. See below:
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First, it’s the only one I’ve used, but I’m using it on the reccommendation of a number of other people I trust on the Net. With that said, I can fit nearly 40 blogs on my feeds list and can view at a glance if any have new/unread posts. It does have the functionality to alert you when a new post is made, but I disabled that (similar to a mail program alerting you that you have new mail). Beyond that, the interface is clean and simple, and doesn’t require much thought on my part. Since it’s FREE!!!!! I couldn’t be happier. And because it’s free, if I find something else I like better, then I’ll switch with no worries.
Moving to an RSS reader does take a bit of getting used to. The interface is text driven, so you loose out on the colorful backgrounds and a lot of images people use on their blogs. Following links (if you want to do it in a new window) requires a right click.
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Big Chris
Because I said so blog
Brett, I think that the President has once again outfoxed the foxes. Just a week ago all the Dems were dripping with saliva waiting to devour the next Supreme Court pick. They could not touch Roberts so they said, “We are just warming up for the next pick.”
And now, the Dems aren’t even in the news. The whole debate is over conservative issues. It is not a question of will she make it, but just how conservative will she be!
And Bush knows the answer to this question. Remember, she is the one who thought John Roberts was her kind of Justice.
With one single decision we no longer hear of hurricanes or wars, but panels of conservatives debate on every cable network . . . educating the public as to the real issues of our times!
Brilliant!
Jason – yes, a brilliant political move in trying to counter Democratic opposition and control the news cycle. However, as you admit, our trust that Bush picked a Scalia-type conservative is blind and assuming that the President is unmoved by the polls. That’s what I’m hoping. But, I won’t be shocked if we get another O’Connor.