Oh. Harriet Miers!

Last night, I realized that I had misspelled Harriet Miers' name in my post yesterday. I went back to correct the errors, but decided to leave them. While unintentional, they are in some sense a metaphor. No one, save Bush probably, really knows this woman.

While switching back and forth between "The Godfather" and "Die Hard 2" last night (the advertisements are so numerous and so long that I was able to watch most of both movies at the same time), I was cruising around the net trying to get a handle on the reactions. The contrast between this nomination and the Roberts nomination couldn't be more striking. It begins, as many have noted, with the absolutely bizarre timing. The Roberts announcement came in a prime time. The Miers announcement came at 8:00 am. What is up with THAT? The only theory I have heard is that Bush was making sure that news of the nomination would not appear in the morning papers. But in an age of round-the-clock news, when most people don't get their information, at least on big stories, from the papers anyway, what did that accomplish?

And then there were the reactions. Except for fringes on both sides, the Roberts nomination was nearly universally hailed as a masterstroke both in terms of the nominee himself ("brilliant" being the most common adjective) and in terms of the political acumen involved in choosing him. It was pretty obvious from the very beginning that Roberts was going to be confirmed, and there was some sense among those who had been itching for a fight that they had been outmaneuvered. The reactions to Miers could not have been more different. No one, and I mean no one, has called Miers a "brilliant choice". The overwhelming reaction has been puzzlement, tinged with relief on the Left ("It could have been worse") and "disappointment, depression and demoralization" on the Right. Miers may still turn out to have been a brilliant political stroke in that Bush will may be able to get her confirmed without an all-out war. But, if that is the case, the cause of political peace will have been bought at the price of putting an enigma on the Supreme Court.

Maybe that is OK. Given her training and experience, Harriet Miers does not strike me as a person who is likely to upset the applecart. She will probably be a good, workman-like if uninspiring Justice, someone who is unlikely to make big changes in either direction. Perhaps that is exactly what to Court and the Counrty both need right now.