Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Enough Already!

I've listened for several days now to the Left and Right's take on President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

When Bush nominated John Roberts, I'm sure I was among many Americans who wondered who this person was that was up for a lifetime job as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

I watched the hearings and was extremely impressed with his intelligence, knowledge, ability to interpret the law, and his obvious integrity. I don't know how he will vote on every issue that comes before the Court, but he seemed to me to be a good choice.

Likewise, I don't know anything about Harriet Miers. I don't see what all the fuss is either on the Republican or Democratic side of the aisle. I daresay that there have been many who have served ably and well on the Supreme Court with a much less impressive resume than Ms. Miers. There have also been some with great resumes who were absolute disasters for one side or another who had absolutely fabulous resumes. I look forward to seeing for myself what kind of mind she has and how she conducts herself during her confirmation hearings.

Let's wait and see how things go, shall we? If she is confirmed (and it is likely she will, no matter what anyone thinks) we'll have a few more Bush years in which to decide if the President made a sound choice or not.

This rush to judgement on the soundness of his choice is futile and worthless. Whatever one thinks now about what she believes or doesn't believe means nothing. Just look at how poorly previous predictions of how potential Supreme Court Justices would behave have fared.

This is conservative hysteria. The truth is that anyone the President might have nominated could turn out to be the Antichrist as far as either the conservative or liberal agenda is concerned. These nominees do not pledge their allegiance or sign their name in blood committing them to one point of view or another. All anyone can do is hope for the best.

All nominees to the Supreme Court must be taken on trust. Because, once they are confirmed they will do precisely what they want--whether the Left or the Right agree or not.

And that's how it should be. That's why we have a Supreme Court--to make fair and INDEPENDENT decisions. Those decisions may be good or bad; right or wrong depending on your political, moral and religious beliefs--but at least they are as independent of all those things as the Founders could make them.

If you really feel you can't trust the President's choice...well, who are you going to trust instead? If Senators feel there is someone else they would trust more, then they should vote NO to her confirmation.

But enough already on the histrionic displays of disappointment and dismay.

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