One need not go so far as columnist George Will (who wrote that the president has “forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution”) to find that if the Senate were to vote down Harriet Miers it would be no calamity. What changed me from passivity on this matter, was intriguingly, an interview Bill Bennett conducted with Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh said something like, oh, well, perhaps the president will have other opportunities to name members of the Supreme Court. Nuts to that. After reading as much as I can about Ms. Miers, I believe she is a sound choice but not an excellent one. President Bush’s view that she is the best he’s found, is a rather arrogant view to which we are supposed to conform because he knows what is best for us. My blog yesterday which thanked God for cronyism went too far, I now believe, in accepting his choice which, though of an accomplished lawyer, is not the best that could be made.
Let me put this in fine print to show who would be ideal to do it.
To those who say it would be too great an act of courage for a Republican Senator to challenge this appointment, I have two words to offer: Tom Coburn. The self-term-limited physician-lawmaker from Oklahoma has made a career out of following his own conscience. He who had the guts as a GOP House member to get Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay riled because he questioned appropriations, has the intestinal stamina to do it. As a member of Senate Judiciary, he would be the logical one to start the ball rolling. Joining with him would be a number of Democrats who, for reasons of their own, would oppose the nomination. Sorry, Rush, I love you like a brother but I really don’t think we have to simply take this on the chin because our guy made the appointment.
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