The Harriet Miers nomination

I don't do much current events blogging here, tending to save that for my commenting on other people's blogs. But now that First Things has started up an editorial blog, I guess it's okay for me to tag along here.

They deal with the Miers nomination here. (They haven't put in permalinks yet, only batching the posts by the week, but it ought to be near the top.)

They quote an author named Matthew Scully, defending Miers high character against her more coarse conservative critics. The person he describes, in defending Miers, certainly sounds admirable. But, I continue to resist this nomination, for a number of reasons. There is no way she is the best person out there for the job. President Bush has appointed a number of fine federal judges, and John Roberts seems like a quality pick for the SC, so he's entitled to our trust in further picks. But he's strained if not abused that trust with this nomination. Sharp cookie that she may be, she has no judicial experience, and it isn't a sign of "elitism" to want judicial experience in a SC justice. If she is so qualified, let Bush appoint her to an appellate vacancy somewhere and demonstrate it. As it is, we don't know if she'd make a competent traffic court judge.

The fact that Bush is going with a stealth candidate who just happens to be his own lawyer is very disquieting. It means that he doesn't have the stomach right now for a fight in defense of a qualified conservative judge with a paper trail, or he's developing a bunker mentality, or he's becoming impulsive. Not a good sign in a President; it's bad for the country, no matter your politics.