The American Spectator

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(Page 4 of 10)

br> -- Jay W. Molyneaux br> Juno Beach, Florida /p>

While Justice Ginsburg's legal views are total anathema to everything that I believe, at the time of her nomination she had a demonstrable liberal record of legal scholarship, interpretation, and application. She was and is undoubtedly one who understands the opposing views on Constitutionality and legal reasoning.

Furthermore she can, has, and often does get into the debate pits and argue the fine points of Constitutional law from her liberal perspective. When she and Breyer debate a Justice Scalia, we see heavy weights of legal reasoning and jurisprudence contesting the most important issues of the day. Chief Justice Roberts gives one confidence that he, too, is cut from that same cloth, as is Justice Thomas.

On the other hand, Harriet Miers has spent a lifetime specifically avoiding any revelation of her constitutional legal opinions and underpinnings. She has spent a lifetime avoiding the contesting of conflicting views of First Principles. The scant record that has been found leads one to believe that she votes with whoever talks to her last. She has been on two sides of more than one issue and seems to strive exceedingly hard to hew strictly to a middle road. In short, she spends her time trying to please everyone. That, of course, satisfies nobody.

Where does one find a demonstration of her ability to persuade other strong personalities to her point of view? You say that, well, she has run a large law firm and been elected head of state and local bar associations. Surely that demonstrates the ability to bring others to her viewpoint. No, it does not. In fact the best stance in those instances is to have no view of one's own. The most successful person is often the one that simply cuts the middle between two arguments and then asks for unity in the name of comity. In other words, a swing vote on issue after issue. Can you say Justice O'Connor? Ms. Miers is a complete cipher.

Finally, can anyone show the evidence that proves that President Bush understands, or even cares, about the difference between a political conservative and a judicial conservative? I would argue that Bush shows evidence of being an obstinate, stubborn, arrogant, narrowly defined social conservative, and a moderate on everything else. By that I mean conservative on faith issues, family issues, abortion issues, and morality issues. He has grafted on to that issues of patriotism and foreign policy. He shows no inclination whatsoever for fiscal conservatism. His insistence on using "undocumented worker" instead of "illegal alien" shows his disdain for legal issues and border security issues.

Ladies and gentlemen, the only things keeping Bush from being labeled a typical New England moderate is his faith based conservatism and his Texas legal residence. Oh, and his tendency to get totally ticked off by offenses perpetrated on his friends. See his reaction to 9/11 and to criticism of Alberto Gonzales.

p>Miers must go. A SCOTUS nomination is too important to be wasted on an "I don't know," a "maybe," or a "trust me." br> -- Ken Shreve br> New Hampshire /p>

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