Andrew Sullivan Responds...

Heheh... the Right Wing resists the urge to fling poo... for now.

THE RIGHT RESPONDS: There's a groan of disappointment. Frum, who touted her back in July, now says the following:

I worked with Harriet Miers. She's a lovely person: intelligent, honest, capable, loyal, discreet, dedicated ... I could pile on the praise all morning. But nobody would describe her as one of the outstanding lawyers in the United States. And there is no reason at all to believe either that she is a legal conservative or - and more importantly - that she has the spine and steel necessary to resist the pressures that constantly bend the American legal system toward the left.

I am not saying that she is not a legal conservative. I am not saying that she is not steely. I am saying only that there is no good reason to believe either of these things. Not even her closest associates on the job have no [sic] good reason to believe either of these things. In other words, we are being asked by this president to take this appointment purely on trust, without any independent reason to support it. And that is not a request conservatives can safely grant.

I think people under-estimate president Bush's view of his own office. He believes he has had his one accountability moment in power: it was the last election. As we have seen from his refusal to acknowledge his own out-of-control spending or abrogation of settled American law against abusing military detainees, he really does believe he is above the usual sense of accountability. That's why conservatives who think that it's a smart thing to criticize him now, rather than before the election, are fooling themselves. This guy will do what he wants. If he wants to pick a close friend and flunky, whatever her virtues, as a Supreme Court Justice, passing over dozens of other brilliant legal minds and more experienced jurists more acceptable to his base, that's what he'll do. And that's what he's done. Even reflexive Bush-backer, Glenn Reynolds, is "underwhelmed." That's insta-speak for gob-smacked.

Good Lord!

Here's the link to Sullivan's post.

-The Oklahoma Hippy