Harriet Who? Most Capable for What?
Bush, why did you pick Harriet Miers? On the surface, and I mean THE surface, she does not appear to have the qualifications that one would assume a Supreme Court justice should have. She did not attend Yale, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, et cetera, instead she received her undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Methodist University. That’s not a knock on the mighty Mustangs of SMU, but come on? That is hardly the place you would expect a justice to come from.
Okay, so her schooling seems to lack panache, but she has to have done something impressive right? Perhaps, depends on how you judge accomplishment. She has served in a public position at least once when she was elected to the Dallas City Council in 1980 and did not run for re-election because a change was made in the way city districts were represented. She has been president of the law firm of Locke, Liddell and Sapp, which seems to be a fairly impressive professional accomplishment, as well as president of the Texas State Bar Association.
Are any of those good reasons to appoint her to the Supreme Court, or for that matter, to try and fill the shoes of O’Connor? At best, maybe. By comparison, Bush II’s first nominee was a much more inspiring and intelligent choice. Good ol’ Indiana boy Roberts worked in a steel mill in the summer to earn his tuition to Harvard. I’m not sure what Miers did, but I get the feeling its just not as great a Saturday Afternoon Special to watch. Plus, his accomplishments were in the public sphere of influence for the most part.
I’m not knocking Miers at all; it is just too hard to tell from her credentials whether she would truly be capable in such a role. I also have to wonder if she is being nominated because ol’ Bushy knows her. Wasn’t there another President who did that kind of thing, only with his cabinet, and they all turned out to be crooks? Does the Ohio Gang ring a bell? While the potential for Miers actually being a crook is low, it should have been a fair warning about how it looks when borderline nepotism (family lawyer) or hiring friends is involved.
Maybe something will come out and we’ll all be happy that she was nominated. Bush happens to know best, right?
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