Who Was the Second Choice? (Ann Coulter)

Human Events Online ^ | Oct 19, 2005 | Ann Coulter

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

I have finally hit upon a misdeed by the Bush Administration so outrageous, so appalling, so egregious, I am calling for a bipartisan commission with subpoena power to investigate: Who told the President to nominate Harriet Miers? The commission should also be charged with getting an answer to this question: Who was his second choice?

Things are so bad, the best option for Karl Rove now would be to get himself indicted. Then at least he'd have a colorable claim to having no involvement in the Miers nomination.

This week's Miers update is:

(1) Miers is a good bowler (New York Times, Oct. 16, 2005, front page–Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget: "'She is a very good bowler"), which, in all honesty, is the most impressive thing I've heard about Miers so far.

(2) In 1989, she supported a ban on abortion except to save the life of the mother.

From the beginning of this nightmare, I have taken it as a given that Miers will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. I assume that's why Bush nominated her. (It certainly wasn't her resume.) Pity no one told him there are scads of highly qualified judicial nominees who would also have voted against Roe. Wasn't it Harriet Miers' job to tell him that? Hey, wait a minute . . .

But without a conservative theory of constitutional interpretation, Miers will lay the groundwork for a million more Roes. We're told she has terrific "common sense." Common sense is the last thing you want in a judge! The maxim "Hard cases make bad law" could be expanded to "Hard cases being decided by judges with 'common sense' make unfathomably bad law."

It was "common sense" to allow married couples to buy contraception in Connecticut. That was a decision any randomly selected group of nine good bowlers might well have concurred with on the grounds that, "Well, it's just common sense, isn't it?"

But when the Supreme Court used common sense–rather than the text of the Constitution–to strike down Connecticut's law banning contraception, it opened the door to the Supreme Court’s rewriting all manner of state laws By creating a nonspecific "right to privacy," Griswold v. Connecticut led like night into day to the famed "constitutional right" to stick a fork in a baby's head.

This isn't rank speculation about where "common sense" devoid of constitutional theory gets you: Miers told Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) she would have voted with the majority in Griswold.

(Miers also told Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.)–in front of witnesses–that her favorite justice was "Warren," leaving people wondering whether she meant former Chief Justice Earl Warren, memorialized in "Impeach Warren" billboards across America, or former Chief Justice Warren Burger, another mediocrity praised for his "common sense" who voted for Roe v. Wade and was laughed at by Rehnquist clerks like John Roberts for his lack of ability.)

The sickness of what liberals have done to America is that so many citizens – even conservative citizens – seem to believe the job of a Supreme Court justice entails nothing more than "voting" on public policy issues. The White House considers it relevant to tell us Miers' religious beliefs, her hobbies, her hopes and dreams. She's a good bowler! A stickler for detail! Great dancer! Makes her own clothes!

That's nice for her, but what we're really in the market for is a constitutional scholar who can forcefully say, "No -- that's not my job."

We've been waiting 30 years to end the lunacy of nine demigods on the Supreme Court deciding every burning social issue of the day for us, loyal subjects in a judicial theocracy. We don't want someone who will decide those issues for us – but decide them "our" way. If we did, a White House bureaucrat with good horse sense might be just the ticket.

Admittedly, there isn't much that's more important than ending the abortion holocaust in America. (Abortionist casualties: 7. Unborn casualties 30 million.) But there is one thing. That is democracy.

Democracy sometimes leads to silly laws such as the one that prohibited married couples from buying contraception in Connecticut. But allowing Americans to vote has never led to crèches being torn down across America. It's never led to prayer being purged from every public school in the nation. It's never led to gay marriage. It's never led to returning slaves who had escaped to free states to their slave masters. And it's never led to 30 million dead babies.

We've gone from a representative democracy to a monarchy, and the most appalling thing is–even conservatives just hope like the dickens the next king is a good one.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

President Bush is obviously drunk on power as evidenced by his nomination of Miers and its about time conservatives sober him up!

[Keith in Iowa]

Deja View...

Who Was the Second Choice?

[Yo-Yo]

RULES!!!!

[Ben Mugged]

Must be getting late in the growing season.......

[Pukin Dog]

If your post is example of what is to come, I expect this thread to reach new record levels of stupidity and hyperbole.

[bboop]

God forbid we should have Common Sense on the Court.

[A.Hun]

Coulter just can't get over the fact that GWB doesn't give a damn what she thinks. Waaah,waah.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

Some moderate (i.e., lukewarm) conservatives admonish the rest of us to hold our fire until Ms. Miers's performance at her hearing tells us more about her outlook on law, but any significant revelations are highly unlikely. She cannot be expected to endorse originalism; that would alienate the bloc of senators who think constitutional philosophy is about arriving at pleasing political results. What, then, can she say? Probably that she cannot discuss any issue likely to come before the court. Given the adventurousness of this court, that's just about every issue imaginable. What we can expect in all probability is platitudes about not "legislating from the bench." The Senate is asked, then, to confirm a nominee with no visible judicial philosophy who lacks the basic skills of persuasive argument and clear writing. --Robert Bork, "Slouching Towards Miers: Bush shows himself to be indifferent, if not hostile, to conservative values."

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

...or perhaps people like you can't get over the fact that George W. Bush isn't a dictator.

[massadvj]

A better question:

Who was his FIRST choice?

We've been told that she got the offer because others took their names out of circulation. So, who was the first choice, the one who turned it down before it was given to Miers?

[Virginia Queen]

Ann Coulter is a hate-filled, snobbish, elitist shrew who is far too full of herself. She needs to stop and realize that there are many of us who really don't give a d___ what she thinks and we find her vitriol very distasteful. She defines the term "right-wing nut case).

[COEXERJ145]

I expect this thread to reach new record levels of stupidity and hyperbole.

The other thread on this same article already reached the typical low for a Miers thread.

[Mulch]

Lets hope its not worse then that.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

"There is, to say the least, a heavy presumption that Ms. Miers, though undoubtedly possessed of many sterling qualities, is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. It is not just that she has no known experience with constitutional law and no known opinions on judicial philosophy. It is worse than that. As president of the Texas Bar Association, she wrote columns for the association's journal. David Brooks of the New York Times examined those columns. He reports, with supporting examples, that the quality of her thought and writing demonstrates absolutely no "ability to write clearly and argue incisively."" --Robert Bork, "Slouching Towards Miers: Bush shows himself to be indifferent, if not hostile, to conservative values."

[usurper]

I completely agree with Ann on this one.

[Enterprise]

Bump for my lovely Ann.

[pissant]

Yawn

[A.Hun]

I elected him to choose Supreme Court nominees...I don't see a problem. It is his choice. We gave him that discretion. That is a far cry from a dictator.

Regardless of who he picked, some people wouldn't like it.