The Democrats
didn’t utter a note of disagreement with the Miers nomination.
But now they say her withdrawal is their victory, which Bush must
be forced to acknowledge by nominating a candidate to their liking.
I believe that’s what got Bush in trouble in the first place:
Listening to Democratic Senator Harry Reid, who recommended Miers
for the Supreme Court.
Although
the circumstances were unfortunate—we prefer fighting liberals
to fighting our President—the Miers withdrawal is an unparalleled
victory for conservatives. Liberals were never able to do this
to Clinton when he hosed them. It will be a long time before the
White House thinks it can use and abuse conservatives again.
18-Year
Gap
Until Miers
withdrew, the Bush White House was turning into the Nixon White
House—complete with Harriet Miers as its Rosemary Woods,
with an 18-year gap in her credentials.
As President,
Nixon imposed wage and price controls, created the Environmental
Protection Agency, initiated race-based hiring schemes, signed
SALT I with the Soviets and instituted rapprochement with the
Red Chinese. All of this resulted in liberals’ despising
him even more!
After five
years of Nixon’s ignoring conservatives—where else
would they go?—when liberals came after him for Watergate,
conservatives ignored Nixon. (As the details of Nixon’s
“dirty tricks” came out, conservative columnist Stan
Evans reportedly told Pat Buchanan: “I want to apologize
for all my attacks upon your administration. I would never have
done that if I had known you were into all that good stuff we’ve
been hearing about lately.” )
For five
years, Bush has initiated massive spending programs, obstinately
refused to protect the borders and signed restrictions on political
speech into law. His veto pen remains unopened and unused in its
original shrink-wrapped case. Bush treats conservatives like the
Democrats treat the blacks (which is to say, pretty badly) .
Conservatives
were unhappy, but we were confident Bush would never let us down
on the two issues that mattered more than anything else: the war
on terrorism and the Supreme Court.
Although
Bush has been bold and strong against the terrorists, with the
Miers nomination it was beyond question that he had betrayed conservative
hopes for the Supreme Court.
The way Bush
had been attacking his base lately, he had to count on liberals’
starting to love him because there weren't going to be a lot of
conservatives left to defend him if someone in the White House
got indicted or something.
When conservatives
erupted in pain and rage that the President had thrown away a
Supreme Court seat on his personal lawyer—because she’s
a girl and Laura wanted a girl—administration flacks snippily
informed right-wing activists that they didn’t get a vote.
Only senators vote on judicial nominees (that is, whenever Democrats
allow it).
Next, the
Bush White House accused conservatives of elitism and sexism for
opposing the former Texas Lottery commissioner for the Supreme
Court.
Then it seemed
that the White House actually believed everything liberals say
about conservative Christians—that we are “uneducated”
and “easily led.” After administration officials snookered
a few evangelical leaders into supporting Miers, they sat back
and congratulated themselves on a job well done. But evangelicals
are, at best, split down the middle on Miers. Apparently, Christians
aren’t so easily led. (That’s what you get for believing
The Washington Post!)
Next, the
White House began threatening Republican senators who were thinking
of voting against the former lottery commissioner. To deliver
this message, Bush chose Tom Rath, a liberal Republican functionary
in New Hampshire who brags on his Web page that he “actively
assisted in the U.S. Senate process that confirmed David Souter
as Supreme Court justice.”
At least
Bush found a man with impeccable credentials to promote the Miers
nomination. Note to the promotions department: You can stop printing
up those “Trust Me!” T-shirts. I don’t think
we’re going to need them!
Finally,
to throw us totally off balance, Bush did something weird and
scary this week: He nominated Ben Bernanke for Fed chairman—A
MAN WHO'S TOTALLY QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB. The White House has yet
to explain how this happened.
Politicians
and Fox News analysts afraid of upsetting the White House keep
saying we need to wait for the hearings to see if Miers is qualified.
In fact, the only two people who would have derived any benefit
from the hearings are Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, who would finally
look like a constitutional scholar, and Harriet Miers, who might
have learned something about the Constitution from him.
Far from
opposing Miers, Democrats were delighted with the mess Bush had
stepped in by nominating her. They didn’t dare help Bush
by opposing her. The NARAL ladies were told to take a back seat
to Democrat dreams of an impotent George Bush. Yeah, maybe Miers
would have voted to overturn Roe, but that still wouldn’t
have created a majority to overturn it.
But if Miers
got on the court, Democrats could have had their way with Bush.
His armies would be gone. This isn’t a game of kick the
can in which Republicans fight for any idiot with an “R”
on his shirt. We support Bush because he is a Republican, not
whether or not he is a Republican.
With Miers’
withdrawal, Bush has us back on the team, ready to cheer for him
unreservedly. All we ask is that you please not listen to Harry
Reid next time.
