Harriet Miers – Pamela HarrimanI was immediately disgusted when I heard that Harriet Miers had been nominated to the Supreme Court. Not because of how she may or may not vote. I’ll even grant that she’ll just follow what Thomas-Scalia-Roberts do on the court. My objections are more fundamental than that.
 She’s an embarrassing crony. When Bill Clinton nominated Pamela Harriman to be the ambassador to France, the collective world of commentators and columnists rolled their eyes in disgust. She was a crony, a harlot who had been hanging around democrat circles for some time, donating money. According to wikipedia:
It’s like, sure, ambassadorships get handed out as patronage jobs sometimes, but typically they’re for inconsequential countries in tropical places. Not a large trading partner such as France. Same with judges. Sure, a local judge who adjudicates speeding tickets may go to the friend of a local politician, but not a supreme court nomination! Which brings me to my last point: Conservatives, and republicans in the senate, would NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER take such a nomination seriously were it made by Bill Clinton. NEVER! It would have been laughed off the senate floor. Not just because Clinton was a democrat, though that’s some of it, but because picking a crony for that kind of job is grossly inappropriate. It’s gut wrenching to watch these damned senators all taking this nomination seriously when it so richly deserves to be dismissed out of hand. And the fact that the lone senator raising any sort of objections to the nomination is a certifiable religious kook is deeply distressing.So I understand that Bush gave some sort of speech yesterday in which he FINALLY acknowledged that this war is about Islamic terror, not just terror. That’s nice, but hardly consolation for a crappy supreme court pick. He’s tried this sort of thing before, kicking his base (particularly the libertarian right) and then throwing some red meat out there in hopes they stay happy. Not this time. Not after he betrayed us on McCain/Feingold, education spending and medicare reform. No way Jorge. If the Senate can’t find it within themselves to tell Bush that this nomination is inappropriate, if they don’t have the wherewithal to either vote it down or otherwise convince the president to withdraw it, then there really isn’t much reason to vote republican anymore. I’ll wait until 2008 and the party gets a more appropriate leader. In the meantime, let the dems have it. (and you people wondered why i wouldn’t join the blogs for Bush…) |
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8 Responses to “Harriet Miers – Pamela Harriman”
October 7th, 2005 at 11:43 am
Huzzah!
October 7th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
One minor point. It is unlikely that Ms. Miers would only serve on the court for 10 years. 20+ years would be more like it. Justice O’Connor, for example, is retiring (at age 75) not because of her own health, but rather her husband’s. Justice Stevens is a spry 85. Maybe there’s something in the water that gets piped into the building…
October 7th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
I once read an explanation of how Pamela Harriman made it with those millionaires; 10 percent technique and 90 percent enthusiasm.
October 7th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
I’m afraid I have to disagree with Miers-Harriman analogy. Being Ambassador to the Ct of St James (UK), France, Italy, well, basically, any place you’d want to spend the vacation of a lifetime, are prime patronage positions for both parties. The sole exception are geo-strategic posts like Russia, China, current world hot-spots, and Japan (where we traditionally install a respected retired high level politician). Here’s the lowdown on the current Ambassador to France, he’s a daily double, a high-level donor, and a crony.
Craig Stapleton, who served as ambassador to the Czech Republic before being nominated in April 2005 to serve as ambassador to France, gave a bunch of money and is a crony. Stapleton not only contributed $116,000 to Republicans during the 2000, 2002 and 2004 election cycles, but he is also married to the president’s cousin, Dorothy. Stapleton also worked as a partner with Bush running the Texas Rangers baseball team and served on the board of the Peace Corps under the first President Bush. Before leaving for his first post in Prague, Stapleton spent almost 20 years as president of the Marsh and McLennan Real Estate Advisors. The Paris post had previously been occupied by wealthy Republican donor Howard Leach.
(last paragraph courtesy of Center for Responsive Politics)
Interesting blog, just discovered and have bookmarked.
October 8th, 2005 at 12:42 am
Ms. Harriman’s career as a professional paramour earned her the admiriation of the French, who referred to her at her passing as “The last of Les Grandes Horizontales”, putting her in the august company of Marie Antoinette and Lola Montez. Myself, I suspect her charm lay in 90% technique and 10% enthusiasm, not the other way round. It’s amazing how a few well-delivered Kegels can reduce a man to a simpering sex slave.
October 8th, 2005 at 10:22 am
Roberts is the youngest chief justice, at 50, so how does Miers be too old, at 60? Heckuva pressured ten years there, in that case. Few justices have been appointed younger than 55/60 and, as HT says, may be the water in the SC building is laced with something I want, too. So many of them live and work into their late seventies and eighties.
October 9th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
OK, smartasses. Let’s take a brief look at teh court and the ages at which they’d been confirmed:
John Paul Stevens, Age 55
Sandra Day O’Conner, Age 51
Antonin Scalia, Age 50
Anthony Kennedy, Age 52
David Souter, Age 51
Clarance Thomas, Age 43
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Age 60
Stephen Bryer, Age 56
Clearly, Miers is on the HIGH end of that spectrum.
You can see the ages at which they were comnfirmed here.
Why are apologists always so stupid?
June 15th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
[...] On the one hand, I do admire the fighting spirit, and I do believe that Republicans can use more of it. Republican legislators in particular have a way of negotiating with themselves before going to negotiate with Democrats, and once they’ve done that, there’s very often little left to support. It’s this fact that has supporters demoralized, particularly after eight years of Bush (more here). [...]
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