A steller record

Doug Ireland argues that Miers’ positions when she ran for Dallas city council in 1989, including opposing legalizing sodomy and abortion, are reason enough no Democrat should vote for her. I agree. Ah, you might say, that was 16 years ago, and people’s views change over the course of time. Not according to Shrub, who said that her views 20 years from now will be exactly the same as they are now because “she doesn’t change over the course of time” (remember, in Bush’s view, stubbornness and lack of adaptation are virtues). So her views 20 years ago are fair game. Molly Ivins adds that Miers also supported discrimination against homosexuals in hiring, such as that then practiced by the Dallas police dept (Ivins also writes about Miers’ religious beliefs).

I watched the press conference, for my sins, but Bush said so little and at such length and spoke so slowly that it was like a torture specifically designed for bloggers. The things I endure for you people. The reporters, who haven’t had an opportunity like this for months, turned out to have no questions. I knew I was in for a long ride when the first one was “Mr. President, of all the people in the United States you had to choose from, is Harriet Miers the most qualified to serve on the Supreme Court?” If you’re wondering, yes, yes she is. “I picked the best person I could find.” By which he means the best person he could find without doing more than shouting out the Oval Office door, “Hey, is anyone here a lawyer?”

I could have occupied myself with minor amusements like counting the number of times Bush said “In other words...”, or counting the spelling errors in the CNN scroll (Bush said Miers has a “steller record”); mostly I just contemplated switching back to the Kolchak marathon on the Sci Fi Channel.

A reporter gave Bush yet another chance to admit that he personally had made a mistake re Katrina. He declined once again to do so. He was asked if he’d ever discussed abortion with Miers and responded by saying – four times, yet – that he has no litmus test. The reporter tried again, pointing out that he had known Miers for a decade. No, Bush said, I didn’t ask her about abortion during the interview, ignoring all but one hour of that decade (well, 5 minutes, knowing Bush). Asked yet again,

Q In your friendship with her, you’ve never discussed abortion?

THE PRESIDENT: Not to my recollection have I ever sat down with her -- what I have done is understand the type of person she is and the type of judge she will be.

So they never talked about abortion while in a seated position...