Justice Scalia Defends Miers
What will the critics say now?
The great conservative judicial icon, Justice Antonin Scalia has taken sides. And he weighs in favor of bringing someone on board without prior judicial experience.
NewsMax.com reports: “In an interview taped Saturday night and set for broadcast on Monday, leading conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia appears to be defending Harriet Miers against critics who say she doesn’t have the qualifications to sit on the High Court.”
“I think it’s a good thing to have people from all sorts of backgrounds [on the Court],” Scalia tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, as the debate rages over Miers’ lack of judicial experience.
Without mentioning the Bush nominee by name, the conservative legal icon said that the High Court needed someone who had never served as a judge to take the place of the late Justice William Rehnquist.
“There is now nobody with that [non judicial] background after the death of the previous chief,” Scalia laments to Bartiromo.
“And the reason that’s happened, I think, is that the nomination and confirmation process has become so controversial, so politicized that I think a president does not want to give the opposition an easy excuse [to say] ‘Well, this person has no judicial experience.’”
Scalia concludes: “I don’t think that’s a good thing. I think the Byron Whites, the Lewis Powells and the Bill Rehnquists have contributed to the court even though they didn’t sit on a lower federal court.”
Has anyone ever considered, maybe, just maybe, that President Bush anticipated how Scalia would feel towards Harriet Miers?
Yes, that would mean giving George W. Bush some credit.
Instead, so many conservative critics been quick to turn against our President without considering the full range of possibilities. Why? It’s politics, after all. Many things aren’t what they appear to be. But one thing is clear: division within the ranks, and that creates weakness to be exploited by our enemies.
Slamming President Bush publicly achieves little more than adding to the liberals’ “Worst. President. Ever.” mantra.
We’re better than that.
UPDATE:
And speaking of team spirit…
Beldar points out “the moving Miers goalposts”
He observes that there’s no pleasing the pundits:
“What’s very frustrating to me is how the goalposts keep moving on this nomination, and it’s my own team that’s doing it. (I say “my team,” I actually mean “what I thought, apparently wrongly, was a team, and the one I’ve always thought I was on.”)
Beldar explains further in an insightful essay.
And like a doctor analyzing a disease, he makes this pronouncement:
The greatest part of the confluence of negative thoughts and emotions about this nomination comes, I firmly believe, from a failure of imagination. And that is something that’s curable.
That’s the kind of optimism we like to hear from our party. Let’s see some of it again.
Justin Hart agrees. (And blames it on Beldar)
Newt Gingrich declares: “Conservatives can trust in Miers”
BlogsforBush points us to Thomas Sowell who asserts, “Republican Senate Is Weak, Not Bush”
Joust The Facts explores this angle further
UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin warns, “Miers: Beware”
Check out John Hawkins’ poll of conservative bloggers on the Miers nomination. Negative sentiment and uncertainty predominate.
No kidding. And Malkin has more.
RELATED:
Hurricane Harriet
Trackbacks:
October 9th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
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October 9th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
All Scalia is doing is saying that no judical experience is needed.
Ok fine.. but he -ISn’t- saying she’d be a good pick
October 9th, 2005 at 3:55 pm
But he IS taking on a criticism that has persisted against Miers: that she has “no judicial experience.”
While not an official endorsement, by making his position public, Scalia is offering a de facto defense of her. Or, if you must, as CNS writes: “appears to be defending”
October 9th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Scalia defends Miers
Via California Conservative, Newsmax reports that Justice Antonin Scalia has said in an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that is scheduled to air Monday:
“I think it’s a good thing to have people from all sorts of backgrounds [o…
October 9th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
Senate Dems Defend Miers on Top Court Nod
Some Senate Democrats are jumping in the middle of a Republican fray to defend Harriet Miers from co
October 10th, 2005 at 6:45 am
The Coming Storm
Remind me to miss the Harriett Meirs confirmation hearings next month. Quite frankly, it isn’t going to be pretty.
October 10th, 2005 at 7:49 am
Hawkins Poll: If CBS released a poll based on 79 responses, we’d be all over CBS charging bias, blah, blah, blah. It is an AOL online poll.
October 11th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
[...] We’re better than that. California Conservative To quote the great country crooner Dierks Bentely, those folks should be asking What was I thinking? Just what do my friends on the right hope to accomplish by weakening the President at exactly the moment when his Administration is balanced on the knife’s edge of irrelevancy? Lame Duckiness is staring George Bush right in the face and here comes a bunch of conservatives running toward this particular gasoline dump trying desperately to keep the match lit long enough so that they can experience the deep and abiding satisfaction of self-immolation. [...]
October 14th, 2005 at 8:12 am
Appoint Schiavo
California Conservative: “Has anyone ever considered, maybe, just maybe, that President Bush anticipated how Scalia would feel towards Harriet Miers? …
October 24th, 2005 at 10:56 am
[...] RELATED: Preparing Miers’ Pullout DNC Memo: Encourage Conservatives To Continue Opposing Miers Memo To Conservatives: We Are Helping The Other Side. Pass It On. Neutral on the Miers nomination The Miers Qualification Controversy Hurricane Harriet Justice Scalia Defends Miers More on Miers Oblogatory Anecdotes linked with Schumer: Miers Does Not Have The Votes! [...]