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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The Harriet Miers Hail Mary

Back to the much-juicier sport of national politics! Since from John Robert’s introduction until the end of time all Supreme Court nomination analogies must be sports-related, Newsweek dubs the White House’s second start on Harriet Miers the “Harriet Hail Mary.”

It is a frightfully inapt analogy, since the restart seems to be based entirely on downplaying her religious values and trumpeting everything else.

The president has conservative allies of his own, chief among them a Jedi of Beltway combat, Newt Gingrich. New talking points were issued to them late last week, focusing on Miers’s rather thin list of qualifications—bar-association presidencies, corporate legal work and a term as a member of the Dallas City Council. The talking points were notable for their absence of even a passing reference to her religion. The switch was a rare, but necessary, admission of a strategic screw-up. “We got distracted by discussions about her faith and church attendance that really have no bearing on her qualifications for the court,” said a Bush aide close to the confirmation process, insisting on anonymity so he could speak freely. “That’s what we’ve got to get back to.”

And that is where the article ends. Because what have they got to get back to? There is still the issue that Harriet Miers is unqualified for the post, and would possibly fail to build for herself an independent voice on the bench. That’s the problem at hand; not religion. Religion is what the President trots out when he wants to say ‘trust me’ but can’t, lest the Ghost of Bush Past crop up in the media. Religion is a way to convey Miers’ personal opinions about hot-button political issues. But the White House just spent two months explaining on behalf John Roberts—who did have a judicial record—that personal opinions are not relevant.

When John Roberts was overwhelmingly confirmed in the Senate, in happened for three reasons. First, some Republicans gave him the thumbs up because he was clearly a conservative. Others because he was clearly a strict constructionist. Then, some Democrats gave the thumbs up because he was a qualified and responsible jurist. Those are the three glasses that the White House has to fill with some reasonably attractive liquid. Near as I can tell, it has failed on all three counts.

The White House was banking on Miers’ former support for Democratic candidates to attract Democrats in the Senate. But they don’t care about that: they know any Bush pick will be conservative. For the Dems, Bush needed to send the message: this woman is SCOTUS material.

The White House was banking on Miers’ religion to attract the more rightist Republicans in the Senate. But they are left to worry about her past support for Democratic candidates and her strange, late, and instant discovery of both religion and conservatism.

Finally, the White House had nothing to bank on to convince the moderate Republicans—who don’t care about religion or Ivy League education but just want a strict constructionist—that Miers was the right gal.

I think that is why they failed, and why attempts to relaunch will ultimately prove futile.

Posted on October 18, 2005 12:24 AM. Permalink