Bush: Miers ‘Absolutely’ Would Have Made An ‘Excellent’ Justice, But ‘Man, The Lions Tore Her Up’
Bush: Miers ‘Absolutely’ Would Have Made An ‘Excellent’ Justice, But ‘Man, The Lions Tore Her Up’
As the clock winds down on his presidency, President Bush has begun sitting for valedictory interviews. He refused to reexamine his most controversial decision — to go to war in Iraq — during last week’s interview with Charlie Gibson, saying, “That is a do-over that I can’t do.” In a new interview with editors and writers for conservative magazine National Review, Bush similarly refused to rethink his choices, “saying only that a president doesn’t ‘get an opportunity to redo a decision.’”
Though Bush wouldn’t reexamine Iraq, he happily defended other failures from his presidency, including his short-lived nomination of then-White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, whom he said “absolutely” would have made an “excellent” justice:
Asked whether he believes Harriet Miers “would have been excellent on the court,” the president quickly responded, “Absolutely. Absolutely, no question in my mind . . . and there’s no doubt in my mind that my dear friend, Harriet Miers, would have had the same judicial philosophy 20 years after I went home, and had the intellectual firepower to do the job.” [...] His regret about the Miers case, he told us, was that “this really, really good person got chucked out there and, man, the lions tore her up.”
National Review, of course, was one of those groups who “tore up” Miers’ nomination. Only 11 days after Bush nominated her, National Review demanded Miers withdraw her name, calling her “a practically unknown quality, a gamble for incredibly high stakes.”
Bush was nearly entirely alone in considering Miers qualified for the Court. Besides her evangelical faith, Mier’s main qualification appeared to be her fierce loyalty to him. Bush’s crony-laden pick was too much for even conservatives to bear:
Andrew Sullivan: “Think of her as a very capable indentured servant of the Bush family. … I think they’ve found someone whose personal loyalty to Bush exceeds even Gonzales’.”
Ramesh Ponnuru: “It’s an inspiring testament to the diversity of the president’s cronies.”
Michelle Malkin: “[S]he’s so transparently a crony/”diversity” pick while so many other vastly more qualified and impressive candidates went to waste.”
National Review: “‘The president trusts her,’ is not a good enough argument. The president has trusted a lot of people, some of whom have worked out fine, others less so. To which category will Harriet Miers belong?”
Peggy Noonan: “‘My way or the highway’ is getting old. ‘Please listen to us and try to see it our way or we’ll have to kill you,’ is getting old.”
Even after withdrawing her name in disgrace, Miers continues to demonstrate her loyalty to Bush, repeatedly defying congressional subpoenas compelling her to testify about her integral role in the U.S. Attorney scandal. She has cited a request from Bush as her reason enough to ignore Congress.
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Munch, munch. :0
¶ AIO
December 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pmExactly the type of SC justice the repukes love.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pmIf my memory serve’s me it was the elephant’s from the reich that were chewing her up….Blessings
December 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pmYeah, and I’d make an excellent Pope, too.
Ignore the fact that I don’t believe in God. I just like wearing silk and jewels.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pmOnly Bush would think that choosing his “cleaning lady” for the Supreme Court was a good idea.
Bush is a F**KTARD!
December 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pmThis only reinforces what we already know – Chimpy is completely and thoroughly out of touch with any form of reality known to mortals. It must be quite an experience living in his bubble.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:55 pmWell, at the very least, she wouldn’t have been as dumb as Clarence Thomas.
¶ AIO
December 8th, 2008 at 12:55 pmI think one of the only quasi-redeeming qualities of Bush was his loyalty… whether it was earned or not….
December 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pmW will Never cease to amaze me. His displays of boundless ego coupled with an almost complete lack of conscience will Never, ever stop. It’s almost sad to see this pathetic display of self-pity. However reality, with its endless left-leaning bias, will continue to ruin his pretty little world. Impeach. There’s Still Time.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pmThe Lions are not done yet…
December 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm“Bush similarly refused to rethink his choices, “saying only that a president doesn’t ‘get an opportunity to redo a decision.’””
Well, you wanted to be the Deciderer.
Miers might have made a good hunting companion for Scalia, if pit bulls didn’t crunch down so hard on the ducks.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pmMiers is about to lost her license as a Lawyer because she refused to testify yet she would be a great Justice. We watch Justice Clarence Thomas put for a hearing on Obama’s birth certif. knowing he is a natural born US citizen. Justice Thomas said he see’s his dead Mother and GrandFather so we know he’s finished and with Miers who breaks the law what’s next.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pmlock her up!!
December 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm.
Pop Quiz:
What’s a subpoena?
.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:10 pmBush absolutely confuses loyalty with competence.
What an incompetent disgrace.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pmThen again Bush believes he’s been and excellent president.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pmOne of those “Gut decisions” that Bush makes, screw the fact that all of his decisions have been wrong so far, the “Dictator” does not want his “decidering” to be questioned.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pmshe is chimpy’s teabaggee because she protected/destroyed chimpy’s military criminal record.
What a idiot chimpy is, he brags about a simpleminded woman keeping the same views for 20 yrs. (I know this is what a repug does)
raccoon didn’t know how to write briefs. she also uses the words like “cool” and sent chimpy love letters talking about how “awsome” he is. Like the immature idiots.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pmIf something positive does come out of the administration in 10, 20 yrs, what makes chimpy believe he will get credit for it?
Ask hitler if his image improved over time. Germany still has a bad rep to this day.
he is such a dangerous simpleton.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:22 pm…no question in my mind . . . and there’s no doubt in my mind…
Really stupid people seldom have room in their tiny minds for questions and doubts.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm“Bush: Miers ‘Absolutely’ Would Have Made An ‘Excellent’ Justice, But ‘Man, The Lions Tore Her Up’”
And this the same woman, a lawyer for goodness sakes, who broke the law by not appearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee and refusing the subpeona. Bush needs to lay off the blow. It’s clogging his brain. Looking forward to the Full-Of-It Moving Service to haul the clown President out of the White House come January 20th.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pmshoeless Says:
“…no question in my mind . . . and there’s no doubt in my mind…”
why, there’s nothing in my mind at all!
December 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pmSo, in Bushworld up is down, black is white and Harriet Miers would have made a “great” Supreme Court justice.
Yeah, right.
Sorry, Bushie, but all this navel-gazing ain’t gonna matter one little bit when the history books are written about the past decade in our history. Trust me, it will not be kind.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pmNevar Says:
shoeless Says:
“…no question in my mind . . . and there’s no doubt in my mind…”
why, there’s nothing in my mind at all!
That sums up his whole Presiduncy
December 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pmHere is what the National Review’s David Frum had to say about Miers last week:
In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/03/miers-ultimate-loyalist/
Really stupid people tend to believe their fellow morons are brilliant.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:30 pm“withdrawed her name in disgrace?”
withdrew
…you’re welcome…
December 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pmNo, this is more like when rumsfeld resigned in disgrace.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pmNettles Says:
You have a very short memory. Yeah, she was a disgrace, which even hardcore conservatives railed against her and they were the loudest detractors ( aren’t they always? ). The “lions” that tore her up, were from the Republican side of the isle, the Democrats didn’t even have to say a thing to derail the stupidest nomination of the whole Bush PresiDUNCY.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pmNow now, Nevar…
Nettles’ Home Skoolin’ is jes’ showin’ thru…
We all know the proper grammatical usage is “DONE withdrawed”…
Hey, Nettles… instead of trying to put us on the spot w/ the Wood/Baird nonsense, why don’t you ask the people who made the comment?
Ya know, yer wingnutty compadres at The National Review?
December 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pmThe reason this was recognized as such a disgrace is that it occurred so soon after another Bush crony was exposed in the Hurricane Katrina debacle. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” was still very fresh in everyone’s mind.
These two events were the beginning of the end for Bush and his incompetent gang of cronies.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pmWhat is disgraceful about harriet Miers is that she has yet to be disbarred from practicing law along with Gonzo and many of the other Bush lawyers who view the law with contempt.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:47 pmImagine if one of us ignored a congressinal subpeona??? Arrest this woman!
December 8th, 2008 at 1:49 pmSorry, Nettles, I didn’t know…
December 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pmSo she blew off a valid, enforceable Congressional subpeona because Bush asked her to? What if Bush asked her to shoot 45 Americans? What if Bush asked he to lie to investigators? What if Bush asked her to disobey all the laws of the land, would that still be permitted? just because Bush asked her to?
So she thinks Bush writes the rules around here?
Dude: Where’s my country?
December 8th, 2008 at 2:00 pmDidn’t Harriet Miers call Bush W. one of the great minds of the Western world, or something like that?
Is it true that Harriet has been committed to a mental institution someplace in Switzerland?
December 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pmIs it true that Harriet has been committed to a mental institution someplace in Switzerland?
(Shhhh, she thinks it’s a spa….)
December 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pmC’mon people, Harriet Miers would surely have been better than Alito, the guy who eventually got the seat.
The conservatroid hyenas thought that Miers was an unknown quantity, and tore her to pieces. They wagged their tails when B*sh nominated a Scalia clone.
We would have been better off with Miers. I don’t think she’s as ideologically rigid as Alito. She couldn’t possibly be.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pmSpeaking of the fool in the White House –
December 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pmI read this on Americablog:
… But it would be nice if the media bothered pressing our current president as to why he still appears to be drinking…
And I certainly agree — the media is making a lot of talk today, chuckling over Obama’s admission to bumming a smoke and trying to give it up entirely — but no one, no one has asked Bush or his spokesmen to dispel rumors that the chimp is drinking — like we all saw him drink pisco last week.
I guess the liar must believe that it doesn’t make any difference that he’s drinking now that he’s phoning in his job these days.
He can drink himself into a stupor in Crawford while Pickles resides in Dallas.
You’re right on, jasperjava, Meirs was a feint, an obviously unqualified and contentious candidate thrown out exactly to be savaged, and then when the lions are satiated, they trot out the truly dangerous candidate, and the beasts have no more fight.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pmChimpy gave Harriet her one and only orgasm, and HE wasn’t even in the room…
December 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pmIt is time to get over stories of Bush’s endless and bottomless lack of intelligence; life goes on, Bush will never be intelligent – let it go.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pmnofltwlt Says:
It is time to get over stories of Bush’s endless and bottomless lack of intelligence; life goes on, Bush will never be intelligent – let it go.
Except that the planet will have to deal with the massive hangover Bush left us. He may be a dolt, but we have to clean up the world Bush destroyed. I would love to ‘just forget’, but my kids and grandkids will still be wiping this shite off their shoes for decades to come.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:45 pmthe lion’s tore her up? looks more like a cut-rate plastic surgeon gave her a budget facelift in that picture
December 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pmIt wasn’t the lions that tore her up, it was the lyin’.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:40 pmBut what does it say of those that can and still only adore
December 9th, 2008 at 3:20 amthis human arachnid (Bush).
THAT picture just SCREAMS for a caption contest. I am stunned that no one has offered any. And i will join that list, seeing the vast potential, yet lacking any specific inspiration.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:55 amNot that we needed more evidence of Dubya’s severe mental limitations, but here it is. So, a president doesn’t “get an opportunity to redo a decision?” You mean, time travel is still impossible? Geez, thanks for the news flash, Prez. It’s the kind of revelation we’ve come to expect from you.
Of course, no one is asking the Lyin’ King to “redo” anything. He was asked to review his decisions, which requires only self-reflection, introspection, insight …
Oh, never mind.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:08 pm