For those on the Left who feel that President Bush has caved in to pressure from Democrats to nominate a moderate to replace the soon-to-retire Sandra Day O’Connor, the swing seat on the Supreme Court, please consider first this sobering adage: Don’t count your foals before they’re birthed.In such a polarized political atmosphere in Washington D.C., common ground is seldom reached between our nation’s two largest political parties, but on Oct. 3, 2005, Democrats and Republicans had good reason to hold hands and vocalize their mutual, befuddled panic, asking, “Who the Hell is Harriet Miers?”
It is my prediction that Miers will prove to be a sleeper Neo-Con. Of course, no evidence is available to substantiate this claim due to the fact that Miers has never been a judge, and therefore a coherent track record from which one would be able to ascertain such information is not forthcoming.
Historically, it is not all that uncommon for a President to present the American people with a nominee who lacks judicial experience, but this seemingly asinine tradition has not been executed in nearly 40 years.
While the Right seems to be as divided as the Left over the Miers nomination, several key players in the Democratic party have already sworn their allegiance to Miers without so much as a Senatorial inquisition. What makes these Democrats believe that Miers will be any less conservative than the man who nominated her? Neither the Right nor the Left can look to Miers’ judicial track record to justify their decision to confirm her or not.
It is well publicized that Bush does not make a habit out of keeping people in his inner circle that disagree with him. Just ask Colin Powell. For Miers to have remained in Bush’s trust for as long as she has, she presumably shares his political, religious and judicial ideologies.One is only left to speculate that Bush, conscious of Democratic Senators’ unwillingness to vote to confirm a well-known, staunch conservative (as his right wing base would have preferred), chose to nominate an unknown whose right-wing ideology is known only to himself and his inner circle all in the name of avoiding a possible filibuster on the Senate floor. Conspiracy theory, or a well-played hand? It depends on who you ask.
While nobody, including the President, truly knows how Miers will rule if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court, her posture regarding abortion, civil rights and privacy is inconclusive enough to frighten both the right and left of center.
Roger Thomas Holst is a senior majoring in literature.