I'm still extemely upset about this pick. Miers isn't qualified and I believe that Bush's friendship with her caused him to overlook that critical fact. There were so many good conservative judges, and some non-judges to choose from that make this pick even more awful. For years, conservatives have been buliding up a considerable depth of great conservative minds to populate the federal bench, including the Supreme Court so that when this moment came - when a "conservative" president had the rare opportunity to nominate a supreme court justice (they don't have that many chances, Clinton had only 2 in 8 years, and Bush may not get another) and had a Republican Senate to boot - the president would have a lot of very well qualified and brilliant men and women to choose from.
Bush looked outside of that depth to choose someone who's only apparent qualifications are her gender and her proximity to the president. She may be "smart" but she is not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. She has no track record of being a legal conservative, and I won't take it on faith she is one. I want proof. We have built up the reserves of great legal conservatives so that we wouldn't have to "trust" the president on these picks. We've been burned by that before and the mantra "No more Souters" was coined because of it.
Bush looked outside of that depth to choose someone who's only apparent qualifications are her gender and her proximity to the president. She may be "smart" but she is not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. She has no track record of being a legal conservative, and I won't take it on faith she is one. I want proof. We have built up the reserves of great legal conservatives so that we wouldn't have to "trust" the president on these picks. We've been burned by that before and the mantra "No more Souters" was coined because of it.
Bush blew it really badly with this pick. He decided a fight with his core supporters would leave him better off than a fight with the loony left. How he came to that conclusion is beyond me, but a lot of conservative Senators or candidates for Senate in 2006 are going to be sweating bullets because the core support simply won't be there. Why get out the vote when we get slapped in the face on the single most critical issue to most conservatives? I could put up with a lot of the liberal crap this president has done, from immigration to spending to medicare to education because I HAD faith that he'd do the right thing on SCOTUS. How many times have I thought, "Well, at least we have the court picks" when I was wondering why Bush would be better than the liberals as I couldn't otherwise tell the difference.
I cast my vote for Bush (not that it mattered here in California, but it did to me) and supported him for this issue above all else. I had faith at that time that when it came to the moment of truth, he would come through. I had faith then that I wouldn't have to keep having faith because I could see with my own eyes that the Bush has lived up to his promise. I simply can't take it on faith that Miers is "one of us." They said the same thing about Souter and look how bad that turned out.
I have lost my faith. I do not support Miers. I ask that the president to withdraw her nomination and nominate a qualified person with a clear record of conservative jurisprudence. That is what we were promised, and I'm still waiting.
