Karl Rove is a genius! The Miers Feint exposed!
Ok, stay with me on this one. After reading this article from Byron York on NRO showing the current despondency of Miers' White House supporters, I was struck by a string of thoughts on Miers' nomination. Here is my thinking about how the Miers' nomination must have been the result of truly brilliant Karl Rove-esq strategy:
She has so many draw backs that are plainly obvious, and such close ties to the President and the judicial nomination process, that Karl Rove suggested the President nominate her knowing that she wouldn't get confirmed. Miers, ever the team player, accepted the nomination with the idea of taking the fall during the confirmation hearings. Miers' confirmation hearings will reveal that she is intellectually average and not up to the challenge of being on the Supreme Court. (Maybe she is intellectually average, maybe she isn't, but she'll sure play it that way in the hearings.) The ABA will rate her "not qualified" or at best "qualified" with some dissenters. This will give Republican Senators all the ammo they need to vote against her. Democrats will vote against her because of her responses on the Texans Unified for Life questionaire supporting a Constitutional amendment banning abortion except to preserve the life of the mother. She will fail to get out of committee and Miers will graciously withdraw, rather than force the President to withdraw her nomination. The resounding lesson the public will learn is that the real qualities Republicans think are important for a Supreme Court justice are excellent credentials and intellectual firepower - just like they saw with Roberts. Miers - coming so close after Roberts - will obviously pale in comparison.
Then, Bush will have every excuse - indeed, a universal mandate - to nominate a fabulously well qualified nominee - Alito, Luttig, McConnell, Janice Rogers Brown, Kozinski, Jones, Owen, etc. The entire focus of scrutiny on the nominee will then have been re-directed away from the substance of the next nominee's prior paper trail to the fact that the nominee is so well published and therefore of distinguished intellect. The next nominee will then be embraced not as an ideologue, as the Democrats would have tried to paint that nominee had Bush not nominated Miers first, but as a resoundingly well qualified Constitutional thinker. In what will become known throughout history as the "Miers Feint," the Republicans in the Gang of 14 will have no excuse not to vote to end a filibuster, if one is tried by the Democrats, due to the obviously superior qualifications of the next nominee compared to Ms. Miers. The Miers Feint will remove any pretense that a filibuster of the next nominee (who would have otherwise been nominated in Miers' spot) is warranted by "extraordinary circumstances." The Democrats probably won't even try a filibuster because they will look so silly opposing such an obviously qualified nominee. Moreover, they won't be able to argue that the Republicans are trying to ram through an ideologue crony because, of course, the Republicans will have just rejected an ideologe crony.
Then, we'll get another true Scalia-Thomas type on the Supreme Court. Brilliant! Karl Rove does it again! (But, shhhhhh, don't tell anyone - not like anyone reads this).
Actually, if Democrats try to blow the whistle on this strategy, they'll look even more like crazy, conspiracy-theory moonbats.
She has so many draw backs that are plainly obvious, and such close ties to the President and the judicial nomination process, that Karl Rove suggested the President nominate her knowing that she wouldn't get confirmed. Miers, ever the team player, accepted the nomination with the idea of taking the fall during the confirmation hearings. Miers' confirmation hearings will reveal that she is intellectually average and not up to the challenge of being on the Supreme Court. (Maybe she is intellectually average, maybe she isn't, but she'll sure play it that way in the hearings.) The ABA will rate her "not qualified" or at best "qualified" with some dissenters. This will give Republican Senators all the ammo they need to vote against her. Democrats will vote against her because of her responses on the Texans Unified for Life questionaire supporting a Constitutional amendment banning abortion except to preserve the life of the mother. She will fail to get out of committee and Miers will graciously withdraw, rather than force the President to withdraw her nomination. The resounding lesson the public will learn is that the real qualities Republicans think are important for a Supreme Court justice are excellent credentials and intellectual firepower - just like they saw with Roberts. Miers - coming so close after Roberts - will obviously pale in comparison.
Then, Bush will have every excuse - indeed, a universal mandate - to nominate a fabulously well qualified nominee - Alito, Luttig, McConnell, Janice Rogers Brown, Kozinski, Jones, Owen, etc. The entire focus of scrutiny on the nominee will then have been re-directed away from the substance of the next nominee's prior paper trail to the fact that the nominee is so well published and therefore of distinguished intellect. The next nominee will then be embraced not as an ideologue, as the Democrats would have tried to paint that nominee had Bush not nominated Miers first, but as a resoundingly well qualified Constitutional thinker. In what will become known throughout history as the "Miers Feint," the Republicans in the Gang of 14 will have no excuse not to vote to end a filibuster, if one is tried by the Democrats, due to the obviously superior qualifications of the next nominee compared to Ms. Miers. The Miers Feint will remove any pretense that a filibuster of the next nominee (who would have otherwise been nominated in Miers' spot) is warranted by "extraordinary circumstances." The Democrats probably won't even try a filibuster because they will look so silly opposing such an obviously qualified nominee. Moreover, they won't be able to argue that the Republicans are trying to ram through an ideologue crony because, of course, the Republicans will have just rejected an ideologe crony.
Then, we'll get another true Scalia-Thomas type on the Supreme Court. Brilliant! Karl Rove does it again! (But, shhhhhh, don't tell anyone - not like anyone reads this).
Actually, if Democrats try to blow the whistle on this strategy, they'll look even more like crazy, conspiracy-theory moonbats.
posted by Ben at 2:29 PM
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