From Miers, Telling Words - Broder - Liberals Beware Code Words

[rndmprsn]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501940.html



...Bush's words were clearly aimed at reassuring his conservative constituents, some of whom had greeted the choice of Miers with groans of disappointment because they had other favorites with records and views more obviously in line with their own.

It's too soon to judge this nomination. But my guess is that in the end it is the liberals who will have the most misgivings about Miers...

...He spoke as one who has known and worked with her for well over a decade, who has played host to her when she has been a Federalist Society speaker, and -- perhaps most significant -- who joined her in a battle to get the American Bar Association to rescind its resolution endorsing Roe v. Wade, the decision establishing a right to abortion.

The first thing Leo said was that Miers's statement accepting the nomination from Bush was significant to him. "It is the responsibility of every generation to be true to the Founders' vision of the proper role of courts in our society . . . and to help ensure that the courts meet their obligations to strictly apply the laws and the Constitution," she said. "When she talked about 'the Founders' vision' and used the word 'strictly,' " Leo said, "I thought, 'Robert Bork,' " Ronald Reagan's Supreme Court pick, who was rejected by the Senate after a bitter fight. "She didn't have to go there. She could simply have said, 'Judges should not legislate from the bench.' But she chose those words."

I asked if he was surprised that she did -- or whether it was consistent with what he knew of her judicial philosophy. He replied: "I'm not surprised that's what she believes. I'm surprised her handlers let her say it."