What A Betrayal

Forgive me if I feel stabbed in the back. So many voters pulled the lever for GWB in November based on his statements that he would select a Scalia/Thomas type to fill any Supreme Court vacancy. What did we get? Harriet Miers. A woman who was nothing more than a small-time trial lawyer in Texas with a career in administrative politics. She has no academic background. She has: never been a judge, never argued before the Supreme Court, never clerked for a Supreme Court justice, and never written a serious article on Constitutional jurisprudence. Remember how John Roberts had a concise, well-reasoned answer to every question of Constitutional law thrown at him by the Judiciary Committee? Won't happen with Miers. She doesn't have the resume, nor the intellect to give serious answers to those questions. Un-flipping-believable.

My support for this president has almost completely evaporated. He knows an overwhelming percentage of Republicans voted him into office because they trusted him to nominate a stellar candidate to carry forward the conservative mantle in the nation's highest court. How are we rewarded? With a former Democrat with little experience, no demonstrated intellect, no record of judicial philosophy (if any), and about the poorest possible resume of any of the hopefuls. What an abomination of a choice. It isn't as if the pool of potentials was as pathetic as the usual pool of presidential or congressional candidates. There were some real all-stars out there. And they were all passed over for Bush's former secretary.

I'm at the end of my tolerance for this man. He has abandoned nearly every conservative ideal while pretending to be our champion. He has betrayed our trust and now exposed himself as nothing but an opportunist. Naked to wind, we now see that Bush is in power for power's sake, and he's going to spend the remainder of his term in office rewarding his buddies with plum positions in government, regardless of their competence (see Michael Brown and Julie Myers). We are headed to three years of stagnation and mediocrity because Bush is tired of fighting and just doesn't seem to care anymore. Prove me wrong and I'll eat this post. For now, I can't wait for 2008, come what may.

PS: These guys speak for me: Prof. Bainbridge (see also here and here). Todd Zywicki.

UPDATE: This kind of thinking (CE Petit's) is what got us here in the first place - thinking that 1) Bush would be true to his word, and 2) that he had something up his sleeve that would make us all happy again. Here's my candidate...sike!!! Not happening. Show me any instance where Bush actually came through for conservatives after floating a false "unifying" candidate or policy to the Dems. Answer: never (sheesh, Norman Mineta is still our Transportation Secretary).

This is our nominee and she's terrible. End of story. And since the Democrats love her, which should be tip off number one that she's awful (whatever Harry Reid thinks, I'm always thinking the opposite), don't expect any changes for the better on the Court as a consequence of this nomination.