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When he collected a $250,000 prize last spring, the most memorable thing George Will had to say was that he was all excited because the Chicago Cubs pitchers and catchers that very day had reported to spring training. As I recall, he had just returned from the team's Arizona camp to which he's made a special trip just to partake of that momentous event. And this is the same jock who is now pulling rank on President Bush to denounce his selection of Harriet Miers in terms only Chuck Schumer and the New York Times editorial page could admire?

In what is surely to be the most widely discussed column of the day, Will declares Bush is due absolutely no senatorial deference on this choice. Of a sudden he discovers that Bush "has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution." If only Will had taught Cubs pitchers his skill at throwing knockdown pitches.

Before he's through, Will is going after Bush as if Bush were a dolt umpire. "In addition," he spits through his chewing tobacco, "the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution." What he added about the president's mother and sister isn't included in the Post's version of the column.

Somehow, I suspect that Bush is paying the price for not cultivating Will. Miers too. They've had five years to do so. Now they're being thrown at. They must not have been informed of how Will and Nancy Reagan used to lunch regularly, making sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the day's menu.

topics:
Constitution, NATO