If you have ADD…just read the highlighted parts of Ann’s column:
I eagerly await the announcement of President Bush's real nominee to the Supreme Court. If the president meant Harriet Miers seriously, I have to assume Bush wants to go back to Crawford and let Dick Cheney run the country. Unfortunately for Bush, he could nominate his Scottish terrier Barney, and some conservatives would rush to defend him, claiming to be in possession of secret information convincing them that the pooch is a true conservative and listing Barney's many virtues — loyalty, courage, never jumps on the furniture ... Harriet Miers went to Southern Methodist University Law School, which is not ranked at all by the serious law school reports and ranked No. 52 by US News and World Report. Her greatest legal accomplishment is being the first woman commissioner of the Texas Lottery. I know conservatives have been trained to hate people who went to elite universities, and generally that's a good rule of thumb. But not when it comes to the Supreme Court. First, Bush has no right to say "Trust me." He was elected to represent the American people, not to be dictator for eight years. Among the coalitions that elected Bush are people who have been laboring in the trenches for a quarter-century to change the legal order in America. While Bush was still boozing it up in the early '80s, Ed Meese, Antonin Scalia, Robert Bork and all the founders of the Federalist Society began creating a farm team of massive legal talent on the right. To casually spurn the people who have been taking slings and arrows all these years and instead reward the former commissioner of the Texas Lottery with a Supreme Court appointment is like pinning a medal of honor on some flunky paper-pusher with a desk job at the Pentagon — or on John Kerry — while ignoring your infantrymen doing the fighting and dying. Second, even if you take seriously William F. Buckley's line about preferring to be governed by the first 200 names in the Boston telephone book than by the Harvard faculty, the Supreme Court is not supposed to govern us. Being a Supreme Court justice ought to be a mind-numbingly tedious job suitable only for super-nerds trained in legal reasoning like John Roberts. Being on the Supreme Court isn't like winning a "Best Employee of the Month" award. It's a real job. One Web site defending Bush's choice of a graduate from an undistinguished law school complains that Miers' critics "are playing the Democrats' game," claiming that the "GOP is not the party which idolizes Ivy League acceptability as the criterion of intellectual and mental fitness." (In the sort of error that results from trying to sound "Ivy League" rather than being clear, that sentence uses the grammatically incorrect "which" instead of "that." Web sites defending the academically mediocre would be a lot more convincing without all the grammatical errors.) Actually, all the intellectual firepower in the law is coming from conservatives right now — and thanks for noticing! Liberals got stuck trying to explain Roe v. Wade and are still at work 30 years later trying to come up with a good argument. But the main point is: Au contraire! It is conservatives defending Miers' mediocre resume who are playing the Democrats' game. Contrary to recent practice, the job of being a Supreme Court justice is not to be a philosopher-king. Only someone who buys into the liberals' view of Supreme Court justices as philosopher-kings could hold legal training irrelevant to a job on the Supreme Court. To be sure, if we were looking for philosopher-kings, an SMU law grad would probably be preferable to a graduate from an elite law school. But if we're looking for lawyers with giant brains to memorize obscure legal cases and to compose clearly reasoned opinions about ERISA pre-emption, the doctrine of equivalents in patent law, limitation of liability in admiralty, and supplemental jurisdiction under Section 1367 — I think we want the nerd from an elite law school. Bush may as well appoint his chauffeur head of NASA as put Miers on the Supreme Court. Third and finally, some jobs are so dirty, you can only send in someone who has the finely honed hatred of liberals acquired at elite universities to do them. The devil is an abstraction for normal, decent Americans living in the red states. By contrast, at the top universities, you come face to face with the devil every day, and you learn all his little tropes and tricks. Conservatives from elite schools have already been subjected to liberal blandishments and haven't blinked. These are right-wingers who have fought off the best and the brightest the blue states have to offer. The New York Times isn't going to mau-mau them — as it does intellectual lightweights like Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee — by dangling fawning profiles before them. They aren't waiting for a pat on the head from Nina Totenberg or Linda Greenhouse. To paraphrase Archie Bunker, when you find a conservative from an elite law school, you've really got something. However nice, helpful, prompt and tidy she is, Harriet Miers isn't qualified to play a Supreme Court justice on "The West Wing," let alone to be a real one. Both Republicans and Democrats should be alarmed that Bush seems to believe his power to appoint judges is absolute. This is what "advice and consent" means.
I appreciate debate, but if conservatives come here and just bash me and say I am evil because I don’t like something the president does..it will simply make me ashamed for my party.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
I love Ann Coulter
Posted by The Game at 11:25 PM
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7 comments:
Jim, still waiting to see your posts down below about conservative media bias...and I want to see you defend against the communist party ideals...I added somethings down there.
Regarding this post...
I think Ann Coulter is a clown. She is the Right's equivalent of O'Reilly's "left wing bomb thrower."
That said, this is the fist intelligent essay Coulter has ever written. I agree with almost everything on it except of course for her gratuitous slams of liberals. That's really her bread and butter.
But she is absolutely right about the Miers nomination. I would really hate to see another Scalia on the SCOTUS, but I would hate to see a Supreme Court justice who is "the most qualified person within 30 feet of the oval office."
I understand the intelligent Right's problem with this nomination, and I agree with it even if I don't agree with what they want in a justice.
WOW! I didn't know you had it in you, Game! Nice, rational comeback for those like me, who have been hoping, based on faith. Ann's explanation clarifies what I haven't been able to sort out. I love Ann Coulter, too. I am so glad there are big brainiacs out there like you and Ann to fight off the evil trolls...from both parties. Thanks Game, and once again WOW!
Hey, BTW..I read the whole thing, even though I was dog butt tired. It was just too good to stop.
In general I like Ann as well......But she's wrong about this nominee.
I know we differ on this one Game, and I've given my reason's over and over at my site.
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And, have you so quickly forgotten that Ann brutalized and bitched about John Roberts until right before he was confirmed?
fThat was the one part of the article that made me question Ann...you are 100% correct Pero...I was going to see if anyone picked up on that..
She talked about what a genius Roberts was in THIS article, but bashed him in all others.
I"m glad people like Pero can come here and be a respectful conservative even though he disagrees with me...I am afraid a few regulars have left because of this issue...I hope I am wrong about that....and I hope I am wrong about Miers..
The main point has nothing to do with what Miers COULD BE...it is that there were many, many more qualified people that were FOR SURE conservative..
and conservatives were ready to finally be able to stick up for their side...they get kicked in the media everyday and have to feel bad for being conservative in the PC world...now they feel rejected even by their leader
You know, Bush is not the only one who supports Miers.
Do you know who else does?
The people who have known her personally and worked closely with her for years! Every last one of them!
If they know her and think she will be a good judge, who are we to argue?
Game, I piss off the liberals(my people) from time to time on my site too. and on the show. I don't understand why it is bad to be an individual these days but I guess it is.
oh yea, judge thing. I don't think I'm gonna be real happy with anybody he appoints so I'll leave it to you guys to fight it out.
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