Democrats Praise!

The more the Democrats praise Harriet Miers, the less I like her.

Unless, of course, Miers is as Conservative as Ann Coulter, and the Libs just have some undercover plan to trick us into getting rid of her.

Nah, they aren't smart enough.

AP: Senate Dems Defend Miers on Top Court Nod---

WASHINGTON - Some Senate Democrats are jumping in the middle of a Republican fray to defend Harriet Miers from conservative criticism that she isn't qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.

That doesn't mean Democrats will vote to approve President Bush's longtime confidante for the high court or give her an easy time at a Senate confirmation hearing.
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All the trashing is coming from the right wing of the Republican Party," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said in a conference call with reporters. "I really think it's despicable what they're doing."

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., accused critics of Miers' nomination of being "incredibly sexist."

"They're saying a woman who was one of the first to head up a major law firm with over 400 lawyers doesn't have intellectual heft," Mikulski said. "I find this a double standard."

More unusual is the outright praise from some Democrats for the person who would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a critical moderate vote on abortion, affirmative action and other close rulings.

"I like what I hear so far," said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
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Galling to many conservatives is that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada recommended that Bush nominate Miers and has praised her several times since then without actually promising to vote for her.

The White House enlisted many conservative leaders to testify that Miers would be a reliable vote. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat, tried to counter that assurance when he asserted that Miers pledged to be independent when they discussed her nomination.

"I said, 'Would you disavow people who send out assurances that they know how you're going to vote?' She said, 'Absolutely,'" said Leahy. "She said, 'I will be my own person, I will be independent. Nobody has the authority or right or ability to tell how I'm going to vote.'"

If a Joe Smith, with the same qualifications as Harriet Miers, were White House Counsel and then nominated as the next Supreme Court justice, I would still have a problem. This is not about the fact that Harriet Smith is a woman (as I am!) or that she went to a non-Ivy League school (I don't care!). This is about her lack of Conservative credentials. This is about the President stabbing us in the back, after promising to put good Conservatives on the Supreme Court.

Southern Appeal has a post entitled Miers disses the Federalist Society:

According to James Pinkerton of Newsday:

An ex-White House lawyer told me that Miers was shocked to discover the lawyers in the White House counsel's office were Federalist Society types, all of them scornful of the ABA - her ABA.

And according to the Knight Ridder Washginton Bureau:

In what appear to be some of her only public statements about a constitutional issue, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers testified in a 1990 voting rights lawsuit that . . . . she "wouldn't belong to the Federalist Society" or other "politically charged" groups because they "seem to color your view one way or another."

Joy, joy, joy.