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Does Bush think we're morons?


mattp

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She's worked for him forever. He says he knows Harriet Miers' soul and she shares his values. But in this morning's press conference, I think I heard Bush say he has not discussed her views on abortion with her. Say what?

 

It will be interesting to see what happens to a nominee who lacks enthusiastic support from either party. I am just wondering whether or not the senate republicans will try work behind the scenes to get him to retract this nomination or if they'll just just deal.

 

It seemed like while Robert's ideology was something that Congress would take exception to, the grounds for doubting his legal qualifications were considerably less solid. It seems that both this nominee's ideology and qualifications are grounds for objection, so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

This nomination ranks right up there with the 1st nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security. Very bad vetting.

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She's worked for him forever. He says he knows Harriet Miers' soul and she shares his values. But in this morning's press conference, I think I heard Bush say he has not discussed her views on abortion with her. Say what?

 

It will be interesting to see what happens to a nominee who lacks enthusiastic support from either party. I am just wondering whether or not the senate republicans will try work behind the scenes to get him to retract this nomination or if they'll just just deal.

 

It seemed like while Robert's ideology was something that Congress would take exception to, the grounds for doubting his legal qualifications were considerably less solid. It seems that both this nominee's ideology and qualifications are grounds for objection, so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

This nomination ranks right up there with the 1st nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security. Very bad vetting.

 

Something is rotten in Denmark. My first thought was that this was part of some back-room deal, perhaps originating with the "filibuster/nuclear option" resolution.

 

Now I'm thinking this may be purely about putting in a stealth candidate w/ no paper trail. If so, we can thank the Dems just as much as Bush for this, since this is where all the litmus-test, badgering, and obstructionism has led us. The president should be nominating very qualified candidates, and they should be evaluated on qualifications, not litmus tests.

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It seemed like while Robert's ideology was something that Congress would take exception to, the grounds for doubting his legal qualifications were considerably less solid. It seems that both this nominee's ideology and qualifications are grounds for objection, so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

To my mind Roberts is a Scalia; someone with a keen judicial mind, but whose ideology I disagree with. Miers seems like a Thomas; chosen to fulfill demographic desires and partisan loyalty.

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It seemed like while Robert's ideology was something that Congress would take exception to, the grounds for doubting his legal qualifications were considerably less solid. It seems that both this nominee's ideology and qualifications are grounds for objection, so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

To my mind Roberts is a Scalia; someone with a keen judicial mind, but whose ideology I disagree with. Miers seems like a Thomas; chosen to fulfill demographic desires and partisan loyalty.

 

It's more than that. They seem to be trying to avoid a fight.

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Does Bush think we're morons?

Yes. And we (the USA) have proven him correct over and over again. You realize he actually won the last election? It boggles the mind.

 

 

mo·ron

n.

1. A stupid person; a dolt.

2. Psychology. A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

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Meanwhile, I find it totally absurd that he would say he never discussed her position on abortion with her. I would think it stupid even to try and say it was not discussed during his selection process, but I suppose that might be possible. However, a quick look at some of the press reporting makes it appear that he will not be able to try such a fall-back. He said he did not discuss it with any of the candidates during this selection process but he also said he did not remember "ever" discussing her views on abortion with her. This is obviously a lie and I think he's probably going to have trouble splitting hairs about how he didn't mean to say what it sounded like he was saying -- assuming somebody in politics or in the press thinks that it is an "issue" when our president lies to us.

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"Now I'm thinking this may be purely about putting in a stealth candidate w/ no paper trail. If so, we can thank the Dems just as much as Bush for this, since this is where all the litmus-test, badgering, and obstructionism has led us. The president should be nominating very qualified candidates, and they should be evaluated on qualifications, not litmus tests. "

 

That's more or less what I thought. The strategy on both sides seems to have become one in which the primary goal is to disqualify the candidate on ideological grounds during the hearing, before the vote in the Senate even occurs.

 

Perhaps that's as it should be. A sitting administration is going to nominate a candidate who they think will rule in a manner that's consistent with the party's principles, and if the opposition party will attempt to prevent their appointment.

 

The unfortunate outgrowth of this process is that it the emerging strategy for insuring nomination seems to be to nominate someone with little or no judicial record to oppose. IMO, in an ideal world the nomination process would force any nominee to defend their published views on controversial topics, rather than evade them by means of having no published opinions to discuss.

 

Anyhow - it's definitely an interesting situation when you've got the WSJ editorial page saying that "for now, Mr. Bush is asking his supporters to accept his judgement about his personal lawyer as an act of faith, " and William Kristol describing himself as "dissapointed," "depressed," and "demoralized about the pick, and Harry Reid and Charles Schumer making positive comments about her....

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I am not 100% convinced he actually DID win the last election but that is another matter.

 

Oh man..

 

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind. In using the expression “paranoid style” I am not speaking in a clinical sense, but borrowing a clinical term for other purposes. I have neither the competence nor the desire to classify any figures of the past or present as certifiable lunatics., In fact, the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant."

 

Richard Hofstadter in "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," 1965. Recommended reading for 9/10th of this board.

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