SCOTUS Nominee Harriet Miers

President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to replace Justice O'Connor this morning and politicos on both sides are scrambling.

Worrying Conservatives:

• Harry Reid likes her and suggested her name.  That's almost enough to be a kiss of death for conservatives.

• She donated to Democrats, including Al Gore in 1988.  (It's not uncommon for major law firms to give to both political parties.)

• Pundit Bob Beckel is relieved, which makes my tummy squirm.

• She was on the Democrat "No Filibuster" list.

• She's a Bush crony who once said the President was "the most brilliant man she had ever met".  The last thing this administration needs after the Brown/FEMA incident is a political appointment.

• Conservatives were promised judges in the mold of Thomas and Scalia.  We've been waiting 50 years to move the court right and have been burned by bad appointments by Republican Presidents.  Why was the President unwilling to nominate a solid conservative with a proven record?

• She's 59.  There were plenty of solid conservative picks that are younger.

Reasons for Conservatives to Rally:

• The White House Counsel's office, which she has led since the departure of Gonzales, play a large role in helping the administration to select judges.

• She led the fight to overturn the ABA's pro-abortion position.

• Her statement upon nomination, "If confirmed, I recognize I will have a tremendous responsibility to keep our judicial system strong and to help insure the court meets their obligations to strictly apply the laws and Constitution."

• Social conservatives should be encouraged by the hearty endorsement of Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ.

Michelle Malkin is "Utterly Underwhelmed."

Captain Ed, "Color Me Disappointed."

Hewitt, who seems always the cheerleader, sees Miers as a great GWOT terror pick.

Kennedy v. The Machine: "You will not hear one word of endorsement on this site for Miers if she is, in fact, the nominee."

SCOTUSblog:  "I have no view on whether she should be confirmed (it's simply too early to say), but will go out on a limb and predict that she will be rejected by the Senate. In my view, Justice O'Connor will still be sitting on the Court on January 1, 2006."

A large portion of the base is livid.  Just read any of the comments at Redstate or Confirm Them. I think it's too early to conclude that promises have been broken. We can despair that she is an affirmative action pick or a crony pick.  Anyone who's watched this President knows that he values loyalty above most anything else.

Even is she is not the most qualified jurist, the question is, do we trust the President to have kept his promise to nominate a conservative constructionist? If Miers fits that description, moving the court to the right, and will be easily confirmed, then this is not the disaster that is being portrayed.  If he, knowing her and her work for the past 10 years, is convinced she is a solid conservative, then my main complaint is her age.

Update:  The Anchoress and I are on the same page.

Update 1:30:  Via Slingshot.org, "The only non-Texan [update: Republican] she’s ever donated to is Nebraskan Donald Stenberg, of Stenberg v. Carhart fame, the leading national campaigner against late-term abortion.  The Bush administration is pushing the court to hear another case, this term, on the constitutionality of outlawing the medical procedure.  Stenberg currently heads the Nebraska chapter of the Judicial Confirmation Network, a right-wing judicial activist organization, and has announced that he is running against Ben Nelson in 2006."

For the record, her last contribution to a Democrat was 1988. Her contribution to Stenberg  in 2000.

Comments

[Uncle Ben]

I find hysterics on the part of conservatives very unbecoming. Skepticism or even disappointment is fine. Giving up on the conservative agenda is just plain stupid. You seem to be keeping your head.

[aelfheld]

I look at it this way: Bush took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, then signed McCain/Feingold.

[DallasMike]

“She is on the extreme end of the anti-choice movement,” said Lorlee Bartos, who managed Miers’ first and only political campaign and said they discussed abortion once during the race. “I suspect she is of the same cloth as the president.”

Bartos said Miers told her she was “pro-choice in her youth” but underwent “a born-again, profound experience” that caused her to oppose abortion.

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