Harriet Miers?

Bush made this announcement on October 3rd:

This morning, I'm proud to announce that I am nominating Harriet Ellan Miers to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. For the past five years, Harriet Miers has served in critical roles in our nation's government, including one of the most important legal positions in the country, White House Counsel. She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice. She will be an outstanding addition to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Harriet was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She attended public schools. When illness struck her family during her freshman year in college, Harriet went to work to help pay for her own education. She went on to receive a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a law degree from Southern Methodist University.

Over the course of a distinguished legal career, Harriet has earned the respect and admiration of her fellow attorneys. She has a record of achievement in the law, as well as experience as an elected member of the Dallas City Council. She served at high levels of both state and federal government. Before state and federal courts, she has tried cases, and argued appeals that covered a broad range of matters. She's been a leader in the American Bar Association, and has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the most powerful attorneys in America.

Why is it all his nomination speaches sound like encyclopia entries? And does being Bush's friend and White House council qualify her to be a Supreme Court Justice? To be fair not all Justices have been judges; 10 of the 34 Justices since 1933 came from within the administration, with no judicial experience, namely Lewis Powell, Arthur Goldberg, Earl Warren, Tom Clark, Hugo Black, William Douglas and Felix Frankfurter, and of course William Rhenquist.

Miers' expertise is in corporate law, not constitutional. That's not to say she wouldn't be a good Justice. She was head of the Texas Lottery Commission and is credited with ferreting out corruption within the agency. She's donated to both Republican and Democrats, which really irks the Conservatives.

I'm amused that some Conservatives feeled betrayed by Bush on this nomination: William Kristol (Weekly Standard) feels disappointed, depressed, demoralized. Jeez, is her nomination that bad?

She's a FOG (Friend of George), his White House Counsel, from Texas, and by people who have actually interacted with her on a professional level, she is indeed a legal pit bull. On the other hand she thinks Bush is extremely intelligent...

I can hardly wait for the confirmation hearings to begin. Following Roberts is not going to be easy. It's like having an opening act that ended up following the main attraction: she's going to be compared to Roberts, and probably found to be lacking. She's going to be getting some heavy duty questioning from both sides and it will be interesting to see how well she holds up.