WP: Miers Hit on Letters and the Law (the new Dan Quayle)

[kskiska]

Writings Both Personal and Official Have Critics Poking Fun

(snip)

Bush may have enjoyed being told by Miers in 1997, "You are the best governor ever -- deserving of great respect." But in 2005 such fawning remarks are contributing to suspicion among Bush's conservative allies and others that she was selected more for personal loyalty than her legal heft.

Combined with columns she wrote for an in-house publication while president of the Texas Bar Association -- critics have called them clumsily worded and empty of content -- Miers may be at risk of flunking the writing portion of the Supreme Court confirmation test, according to some opponents.

"The tipping point in Washington is when you go from being a subject of caricature to the subject of laughter," said Bruce Fein, a Miers critic who served in the Reagan administration's Justice Department and who often speaks on constitutional law. "She's in danger of becoming the subject of laughter."

(snip)

From the White House vantage point, such commentary is hardly a laughing matter. In part because she does not have a long record of serious constitutional writings -- in contrast to recently confirmed chief justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- Miers may be at particular risk of being turned into a judicial equivalent of Vice President Dan Quayle. Until his stumbling national debut, Quayle had been regarded as a bright senator from Indiana, but he never fully recovered from the initial blast of mockery.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401979.html

[mestup]

1. I keep thinking about what James Carville said re: Laura Bush

(I'm sorry, I can't find a link. It was last week on a talking head show, and I keep searching transcripts.)

Carville suggested that with Rove basically MIA from the WH over Plamegate, and Bush's popularity tanking after Katrina, we'd be seeing the "velvet iron glove," or something like that, of Laura Bush. I swear he made a comparison to Nancy Reagan. He speculated that Laura would be taking charge of Dubya.

Which makes me wonder if his Harriet-choice was influenced by Laura. It could explain how Harry's nomination has thrown everyone a curve.

:shrug:

[salin]

2. I can almost hear the conversation:

"W, honey, you know that you have commited a number of crimes and misdemeanors in office as have your advisors - all to keep political power... perhaps if you had someone who in the court who could keep that stuff all from ever coming to light would be a good idea... you know, someone like Ms. Miers... she has always been loyal - and you've always done a great job of exploited her school-girl crush on you..."

[enough]

8. Sounds pretty realistic.

[0007]

3. There may be something to what you're saying. In truth I don't

put much stock in anything that James sez!

[liveoaktx]

6. I have that video clip

From CNN on 9/26

[tanyev]

7. Well, according to this...

A last minute effort was made to block the choice of Ms. Miers, including the offices of Vice President Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It fell on deaf ears. First Lady Laura Bush, who went to Southern Methodist University at the same time as Ms. Miers, weighed in. On Sunday night, the president dined with Ms. Miers and the first lady to celebrate the nomination of what one presidential aide inartfully praised to me as that of "a female trailblazer who will walk in the footsteps of President Bush."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110007398

[JoFerret]

14. It's seems that she has been appointed minder in chief

I have heard she does it pro bono.

[thebigidea]

16. probably says more about Carville's marriage than Bush's

I can't believe someone can say Laura Bush is running things with a straight face. That plastic dullard couldn't get into her drapery without assistance.

[0007]

4. More from the Washington Post

"Fein said he is more concerned about Miers's legal thinking than her syntax, especially as outlined in her three-page letter to then-Gov.Bush on June 11, 1995, when she was the former state bar president. The letter implored Bush to veto a bill moving through the Democratic-controlled legislature that would have prevented the state Supreme Court from capping lawyers' fees.

"This proposed law does violence to the balance of power between the legislative and judicial branch of our State's government and constitutes an assault upon the powers of the Supreme Court" just as it had fallen into "Republican hands for the first time," Miers wrote.

Fein said it is outrageous to invoke separation-of-powers arguments when a legislature -- wisely or not -- tries to foster free enterprise. By citing the GOP's new control of the Texas Supreme Court, he said, Miers seemed to be seeking a partisan outcome on shaky constitutional grounds."

[jody]

5. We can cap jury awards but not lawyer fees! ROFLMAO

[indepat]

9. Would we want W as emperor for another 30 years: if not, we don't want

Miers, but W can and almost certainly would find someone else far more extreme.

[Mark E. Smith]

10. Face It, Shrub Promotes Ass Kissers

He's got an administration full of them.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

12. Exactly

It's an administration of brown-nosers and ass-kissers.

[kskiska]

11. Spit it out, girl!

(snip)

One example, from a May 1996 letter asking George and Laura Bush to appear at a ceremony honoring her, displayed both an obsequious tone and a tortuous prose style. "I am respectful of both of your great many time commitments and I realize you receive many, many requests," she wrote. "Of course, I would be very pleased if either of you is able to participate. However, I will be pleased with your judgment about whether participating in this event fits your schedule whatever your decision. . . . I feel honored even to be able to extend this invitation to such extraordinary people."

[opihimoimoi]

13. That should be the last straw for a lotta peeps...anyone who wrote that

should not be on the SCOTUS but on the Daly Show in Comedy Central.

She is a JOKE.

Bush is JOKING with US...he cannot be serious...he is being facetious.

[kostya]

15. Good grief! My eyes almost crossed reading that. Of course, she'd

have some kiss-ass law clerk to clean up her opinions, or she could just cut-n-paste from Scalia like Thomas does.

[slay]

17. Sounds like someone trying to impress her high school english teacher

and doing a poor job of it. And is it just me or does it seem like she might have a little crushy-poo on Georgie-worgee? :evilgrin: