WEDGING THE REPUBLICANS: Here's a good partisan argument:
Sullivan
The sensible thing for the Democrats to do is to hold their noses and vote for Miers. If Miers is rejected or withdrawn, the next nominee will be a lot worse. Bush, having alienated his right-wing base will try to mollify them by picking a hard-line right-wing fire-breather whose record will make it clear that he favors reversing Roe vs Wade. Therefore Miers is the least bad option the Democrats are going to get. In addition, if Miers is confirmed because of the votes of the Democrats while a majority of the Republicans vote against her, it will drive Bush's right wing base absolutely beserk and make the right-wing backlash against Bush much stronger.
For the same reasons, the Democrats should insist that Miers get a fair hearing and an up and down vote, and that she should not be subjected to an ideological litmus test.
That, of course, would drive the Kossers up the wall. But the Kossers are a central reason for Republican dominance of the polity. The Miers nomination is therefore a golden opportunity for a potential Democratic presidential candidate to take on the far-left base. C'mon, Senator Bayh. He needs two core messages: he deeply values Miers' religious faith and personal integrity and believes there should be an up-or-down vote in the whole Senate. Out-Bush Bush, vote for Miers, and then sit back and enjoy watching Sam Brownback squirm. In general, I have always given presidents the benefit of the doubt on judicial nominees. I do again here - but want to see how Miers performs in the hearings. If she's really incompetent, we'll find out and she should be cashiered.
But if she's just a meticulous nit-picker who believes that courts should intervene in politics as little as possible, why not vote for her? It's not as if she'd be the first mediocre crony in the court's history. For Dems, she'd be a lot better than most of the alternatives. And by her mere ascension to the court, as another reader points out, "these deep cleavages we are now seeing on the Right will be frozen in place, like a prehistoric fly trapped in amber." Wedge away, Dems. |
