Miers' brevity fails to impress: Specter, Leahy find answers inadequate

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/20/MNG86FB95A1.DTL

Washington -- Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers flunked her first test before the Senate Judiciary Committee by providing "incomplete" and "inadequate" responses to her questionnaire, committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and ranking Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said Wednesday.

Known for her meticulousness and near obsessive attention to detail, Miers, for example, gave one-word answers to two-part questions, Leahy said, adding that some senators were "insulted" by her answers.

Specter described as "chaotic" the 2 1/2 weeks since President Bush picked his White House counsel to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a pivotal centrist on the high court who supports the landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion rights decision.

"It seems like a year and a half, for all that has happened," said Specter, a veteran of 11 Supreme Court nominations. "There's been more controversy before this nominee has uttered a formal word than I have ever heard." For a candidate who the White House hoped would win easy confirmation as a woman with only a wisp of written record, Miers, 60, a former longtime Dallas corporate lawyer, is turning into the rockiest confirmation fight since Justice Clarence Thomas battled sexual harassment charges on national television in 1991.

[koopie57]

1. why doesn't he just go with Judge Mathes

he is fair, honest and we know is previous decisions. Oh, I see, he is fair and honest. Can't have that.

[gratuitous]

2. Another do-over for the Mulligan administration

The New York Times had a story on some of the answers Miers gave. For example, when they asked about reports in the media about Miers giving private assurances to presidential favorites about how she might vote, and what the details of those contacts might be, she answered, "No."

She appears to have the intellectual depth of an eighth grader. A dull eighth grader.

[Kber]

3. I saw that press conference

it was scathing - and that was Spector's reaction.