Pickin's must sure be slim for Supreme Court justices this year. First Roberts, now Miers, who next? Me? I'm sitting by my phone waiting for a call, Bush, just to let you know. But seriously folks, there are so many things going on with this dilemma that I don't even know where to begin.
It seems to me that a successful Supreme Court nominee needs to have a balance between qualifications, experience and personality. When one of these is missing, the potential candidate becomes hard to nominate, even among their own party. Because, just in case anyone forgot, the Supreme Court is important. They are appointed for life. Not just anyone will do. Although the office has always been used to promote certain values that go along with nominees, Bush's nominees have been more personal that party related. This worries me, and it should worry you.
This is not to say that Harriet Miers is not a successful woman. She is. For those of you who now have a tent set up in Tisch because you have been studying so hard for midterms and missed this, she is a Texan (and yes, I am still sad that Texans go to Washington and mess things up) who has been a successful lawyer and broke through barriers to become the first female leader of the Texas Bar Association. It seems that Bush likes to surround himself with people who break barriers, maybe because he himself has broken none. But that's beside the point. She is a successful lawyer who has been a long time friend and lawyer of President Bush.
Unfortunately, this country is full of successful lawyers, many of whom don't have to count covering up Bush's National Guard controversy on their records. Being a success at your profession does not necessarily merit appointment for life to a bench. I mean, I'm a somewhat successful student, and you don't see the University appointing me to anything. So her career seems not to be winning her many points with senators, many of whom also have distinguished law careers, and you don't see them getting nominated for one of the country's most distinguished offices.
Now for experience. This paragraph will be short, because she has no judicial experience. They can't find anything on her that will tell what kind of justice she will be, and this worries all senators. They are not comfortable with having a justice who has no experience. And although it has happened before, something tells me that she's not going to be the next William Renquist. Just a hunch.
As for personality, it seems to be up in the air. She is known to be extremely hard working and puts in long hours. That is a good quality in a Supreme Court Justice. But where people get nervous is her blatant hero worship of President Bush. She once called Bush "the most brilliant man she had ever met." Let me say that again. "The most brilliant man she had ever met." What I love about this comment is that Republicans actually consider it a strike against her. And this is exactly why sometimes, as an American, I cry a little in my pillow every night.
It's not necessarily a bad thing to think an American president is brilliant, but we can all see why, in this case, a comment like this would make me sad. This
certainly does not make any Republican senators happy, many of who are actually brilliant and have worked with blood, sweat and tears (not the band) to make it to their position. They way I see it, senators are like, "She thinks he's brilliant? There must be something off about her."
It's not odd that Bush would nominate a woman who is obsessed with him, because he surrounds himself with them. He calls these women, such as Miers, Condolezza Rice and Karen Hughes his "mother hens." I think Freud would have a field day.
But aside from that, I'm tired of women climbing to the top of their field only to bow down to a man who does not have a strong command on the English language. It is not inspiring, it is not barrier breaking, it's embarrassing. It's okay to work for and support Bush. But to kowtow to him and blow sunshine up his behind? That's just a discredit to our gender. We're better than that.
One final note on Miers: the White House is now playing up the fact that she is an Evangelical Christian as a qualifier for the bench. This is the U.S. Senate, not the Iowa primary. The White House is going to have to do better than that. So what are they saying? If you aren't an Evangelical Christian you can't be a good justice, or American? If you are an Evangelical Christian, you are automatically qualified for all Governmental positions? Somewhere Louis Brandeis is rolling over in his grave.
Harriet Miers, you are a good and successful woman, no doubt about that. But this office is not meant for you. Please withdraw your nomination, before the Republican party internally combusts any more than it already is. And Bush, I'm waiting for that phone call.
Meredith Pickett is a sophomore majoring in history. She can be reached via e-mail at Meredith.Pickett@tufts.edu.
