George Bush should have considered someone with a proven ability to fill the vacancy on the high court.
Since the withdrawal of Harriet Meirs’s nomination to fill the O’Connor supreme court vacancy, spin has centered on the enormity of the conservative clout. It is no secret that many were dissatisfied with her lack of demonstrable qualifications or even an inkling of her judicial philosophy. Service as the Texas lottery director, a stint as an at-large city council representative and personal lawyer to George W. Bush is hardly the background one expects for a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
But those meager qualifications alone were not enough to energize the onslaught of fierce opposition. Her 1993 speeches, one in which she warmly invoked Barbra Streisand, did little to engender a groundswell of conservative support. Her list of admired female leaders included liberal feminist Gloria Steinem and Hillary Clinton, now a New York senator.
The O’Connor seat, regarded as the swing vote, is crucial to those who twice supported the Bush candidacy. Cuffing the very people who put him in the White House is neither logical nor wise. With his penchant for cronyism and petulance, Bush is all but assuring inaccessibility to the Oval Office to successive Republican hopefuls. His poll numbers are slipping for numerous reasons, but one of them shouldn’t be sticking his finger in the eye of his diligent, supportive base.
Harriet Miers, it turns out, could not be properly evaluated, since she has no core values upon which to be gauged. In a 1993 speech, she spoke of “guaranteeing once and for all a woman’s right when she will have an abortion.” Hardly music to the ears of many Bush loyalists. The never-married, Dallas Sunday School teacher emerged as less an enigma and more of a charlatan.
Vacillating on abortion issues, her views appear to change in a chameleon-like fashion. In Miers’s view, “self-determination” should be the key to decisions regarding abortion and school prayer. Further, where conflicts arise between science and religion, “government should not act.”
When meeting with the Texans for Life Coalition, she cited her belief that abortion was murder; giving assurances that she would "actively support" a pro-life constitutional amendment.
Yet when addressing the Executive Women of Dallas, Miers pitched a dramatic curve when she stated, "The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual women’s right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion,"
It appears that her odd but widely touted and prized quality, that of being unobjectionable, was more than simply faint praise. Miers is actually the great vacillator, customizing her views on social issues to suit her audience.
If dismayed conservatives, betrayed by this lack-luster appointment, were spurred to action it should serve as a clear indicator to President Bush. Even the most accommodating Republicans can reach a point of cynicism. Taking his base for granted as he plods through his second term, will do more than tarnish the “legacy” so dominant in the thinking of recent presidents. His untoward actions have the potential to assure a Democrat successor in 2008.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush would be well advised to consider a proven quantity to fill the vacancy on the high court. His list might include the names of Samuel Alito, Janice Rogers Brown, Edith Hollan Jones, Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell, Priscilla Owens or J. Harvie Wilkinson.
Halloween is right around the corner. Most of us would prefer our frights from ten-year-old neighbor kids dressed as Darth Vader.
Carol Turoff is a former two-term member of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. During her eight years on the commission, she participated in the selection of four of the five current Arizona Supreme Court Justices as well as 17 judges on both Division I and II of the Arizona Court of Appeals. Appointed by two governors, Turoff served with three chairing Supreme Court Justices.
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