Warm and Toasty?
Why in the world would I be feeling all "warm and toasty," Jim? I'm watching the conservatives in my party tear their President apart over what, by most indications, will be a conservative justice. Surely, not the conservative they wanted, but certainly not worthy of the hysteria being demonstrated by her detractors. I'm watching them call their President "arrogant," while at the same time going into wordy detail about how they would have done it better, how really all of them are SO much smarter than he is, and why, if he had only consulted THEM we would all be SO much better off. Who are the arrogant ones? My conservative brethren, who up until this point have argued that Dubya won the election and therefore is entitled to choose his judges, now argue that this choice is born of "nepotism" and even go so far as to hope his own party abandons him and denies that which he won fair and square on Nov. 4, 2004, that is, the right to choose who, in his judgment, would serve America best on the high court. But you all just KNOW she's going to be a disaster.
It is one thing to disagree with Bush on his choice; believe it or not, I wish he had chosen differently if for no other reason than to avoid this hysterical and depressing reaction among his "supporters." However, I refuse to use the Left's tactics against my own President, whom I have a lot of admiration for and whom many of YOU claimed to admire before a few days ago. I will not go on a whispering, heck, yelling campaign against him at a time when he is dealing with a war, weather disasters, kooks on the Left (and Right), and myriad other problems which face him.
We've sure forgotten Reagan's 11th commandment. From Polipundit:
The continuing rancor among Republicans and the nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court displays an unfortunate lack of understanding amongst Conservatives about the condition and reality of modern American politics. Certainly the Democrats have demonstrated that they do not comprehend how much things have changed since the heyday of the New Deal and the Great Society, to such a degree that the long-term survival of the Democrats is in grave doubt. But the present inability of many Conservatives to understand the situation they face with the Miers selection also presents evidence that the Right is also going to have trouble making the most of their opportunity.
The most common complaint I hear regarding Miers, is that the SCOTUS is somehow not going to be Conservative “enough” to suit the Right. It has been said before, by Lorie and others, but it needs to be said again, quite clearly, that such talk is a wrongful insult to Judge Miers, and certainly is an unacceptable arrogance taken towards President Bush. It seems to me that Conservatives sometimes fail to keep their support firm for Dubya, even to the point that some groups and individuals act as if the President owes them the first call on his own nominations. This has certainly happened before, with Conservatives decrying the selection of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000, or the recent selection of Gonzales as Attorney General, or his staunch defense of Donald Rumsfeld during any number of MSM attacks. The fact that Dubya makes decisions carefully, then sticks by them, should have long ago warned people that Bush is neither conventional nor a popularity lapdog.
And later in the essay:
Harriet Miers is not the problem. Peggy Noonan, George Will, and every Conservative whose loyalty to the nation and party depends on their personal approval of every decision are the problem. The oh-so-quick assumption by many that a name or two that they have heard in conversation or essay, but whose actual judicial temperment they do not personally know, is superior to a jurist known by the President, whose mind and character he knows, is appalling on its face, all the worse that it should be given such ready currency simply out of pique. It is not common for the average person to give a great deal of thought to SCOTUS nominations; except for recent events, we seldom hear of the community of judges. But given the ages of the Justices on the extant Court, and the strategic and tactical measures necessary to get confirmation and establish the appropriate atmosphere, it is completely in character for President Bush to have developed his working list a long time ago, even as he held it close to his vest. In other words, President Bush not only knows his personal choice far better in detail than most commenters can say for their choice, he has been thinking about this decision far longer than most of the people barking about it now.
While I don't question the patriotism of those who are now disagreeing vehemently with the President, I do object to the decibel level and manner of disagreement and again, the best word I can think of is hysteria. I think it is harmful to the conservative movement, and I DO agree that if we do suffer loss next November, it will not be, at least entirely, the President's fault. I think it will have a lot to do with the kind of thing we're seeing right now among conservatives.
It is one thing to disagree with Bush on his choice; believe it or not, I wish he had chosen differently if for no other reason than to avoid this hysterical and depressing reaction among his "supporters." However, I refuse to use the Left's tactics against my own President, whom I have a lot of admiration for and whom many of YOU claimed to admire before a few days ago. I will not go on a whispering, heck, yelling campaign against him at a time when he is dealing with a war, weather disasters, kooks on the Left (and Right), and myriad other problems which face him.
We've sure forgotten Reagan's 11th commandment. From Polipundit:
The continuing rancor among Republicans and the nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court displays an unfortunate lack of understanding amongst Conservatives about the condition and reality of modern American politics. Certainly the Democrats have demonstrated that they do not comprehend how much things have changed since the heyday of the New Deal and the Great Society, to such a degree that the long-term survival of the Democrats is in grave doubt. But the present inability of many Conservatives to understand the situation they face with the Miers selection also presents evidence that the Right is also going to have trouble making the most of their opportunity.
The most common complaint I hear regarding Miers, is that the SCOTUS is somehow not going to be Conservative “enough” to suit the Right. It has been said before, by Lorie and others, but it needs to be said again, quite clearly, that such talk is a wrongful insult to Judge Miers, and certainly is an unacceptable arrogance taken towards President Bush. It seems to me that Conservatives sometimes fail to keep their support firm for Dubya, even to the point that some groups and individuals act as if the President owes them the first call on his own nominations. This has certainly happened before, with Conservatives decrying the selection of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000, or the recent selection of Gonzales as Attorney General, or his staunch defense of Donald Rumsfeld during any number of MSM attacks. The fact that Dubya makes decisions carefully, then sticks by them, should have long ago warned people that Bush is neither conventional nor a popularity lapdog.
And later in the essay:
Harriet Miers is not the problem. Peggy Noonan, George Will, and every Conservative whose loyalty to the nation and party depends on their personal approval of every decision are the problem. The oh-so-quick assumption by many that a name or two that they have heard in conversation or essay, but whose actual judicial temperment they do not personally know, is superior to a jurist known by the President, whose mind and character he knows, is appalling on its face, all the worse that it should be given such ready currency simply out of pique. It is not common for the average person to give a great deal of thought to SCOTUS nominations; except for recent events, we seldom hear of the community of judges. But given the ages of the Justices on the extant Court, and the strategic and tactical measures necessary to get confirmation and establish the appropriate atmosphere, it is completely in character for President Bush to have developed his working list a long time ago, even as he held it close to his vest. In other words, President Bush not only knows his personal choice far better in detail than most commenters can say for their choice, he has been thinking about this decision far longer than most of the people barking about it now.
While I don't question the patriotism of those who are now disagreeing vehemently with the President, I do object to the decibel level and manner of disagreement and again, the best word I can think of is hysteria. I think it is harmful to the conservative movement, and I DO agree that if we do suffer loss next November, it will not be, at least entirely, the President's fault. I think it will have a lot to do with the kind of thing we're seeing right now among conservatives.
posted by Jennifer at 4:05 PM
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