IWF: Miers Chosen out of 300 Million, Not 150 Million

Kerry Howley | October 4, 2005

Most Creative Attempt to Reconcile Ideology and Partisan Loyalty goes to: The Independent Women's Forum, for this bit of reasoning:

While IWF supports the nomination of Harriet Miers to be associate justice of the Supreme Court, IWF rejects the feminist argument that the seat to which she was nominated is a 'woman's seat' ... In originally nominating John Roberts to replace Justice O'Connor, the President laid to rest the notion that any one sex or ethnic group owns a particular seat on the Court. Having established that principal last summer, and having elevated John Roberts to be chief justice, the President was free to make this selection free from concerns of gender politics.

Whole thing here.

IWF exposes the "feminist fiction" of a Geena Davis presidency here.

Comments

|10.4.05 @ 1:52PM|#

"In originally nominating John Roberts to replace Justice O'Connor, the President laid to rest the notion that any one sex or ethnic group owns a particular seat on the Court. Having established that principal last summer, and having elevated John Roberts to be chief justice, the President was free to make this selection free from concerns of gender politics."

Wha wha wha????????????????
Is it just me or is this completely incoherent?

R C Dean|10.4.05 @ 2:01PM|#

They're right, except that Bush then pulled Roberts' nomination to replace O'Connor, and nominated a woman instead.

|10.4.05 @ 2:26PM|#

Is that immortal quote from James Watt going around in anyone else's head?

"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple."

I just read W's going to replace Greenspan next.

Shudder.

Ken Lay? Bernie Ebbers? Is Crazy Eddie still around?

|10.4.05 @ 2:27PM|#

THREADJACK, apologies:

I was just at lunch flipping through the recent print Reason. Something has gone horribly wrong with the new style. I didn't mind it at all until the multicolored blubs in FatFont took over the whole cover. It looks way cluttered, and, really, there is only so much hot pink lettering a professional cover should contain.

|10.4.05 @ 2:40PM|#

I just read W's going to replace Greenspan next.

Mike Brown!

|10.4.05 @ 2:43PM|#

From IWF:

"The return of book burning, creationism in the classroom, invading every Third World country...." This is the Republican agenda in the eyes of the hysterical, paranoid Left.

Let's face it - the current administration has done much to reenforce this particular notion of the "Republican agenda." I'm concerned about it and hell, I'm not even a leftie...

|10.4.05 @ 3:02PM|#

Wait a minute. Gena Davis is president? What happened to Martin Sheen?

|10.4.05 @ 3:04PM|#

I haven't seen Geena Davis as President, cuz the ads didn't look nearly as interesting as the ones for Dennis Haysbert as President.

Too bad that what's-his-name won the last election. Worse that power was transferred to that other guy after the plane crash.

Can we bring back President Haysbert?

|10.4.05 @ 3:14PM|#

Having established that principal last summer,...

Now that the principal is established, we just have to sit around and wait for the interest to accrue. Hahaha

Seriously, I think this quote needs a big fat [sic] right in the middle of it.

|10.4.05 @ 3:18PM|#

Funny, unless I'm reading the constitution wrong, there are no actual requires fro being a SCOTUS justice. Could Bush just go ahead and nominate his favorite horse?

|10.4.05 @ 3:24PM|#

er, requirements for being a SCOTUS justice

|10.4.05 @ 3:38PM|#

It's a shame that Chris Farley died, because he would make a great TV president.

(Would have made.)

|10.4.05 @ 4:02PM|#

I think the next President should be chosen via a reality show. Have two teams, Democrats and Republicans.

Each team picks its campaign manager for the week and has to compete against the other team in a task. The campaign manager of the losing team picks the weakest link on his team, and then the American people vote (American Idol style) to eliminate either the campaign manager or his designated weakest link.

If one team becomes significantly smaller than the other we have a shuffle and they have to work in two bipartisan teams until things even out.

On the final task there are 4 candidates. The American people vote on which one to eliminate from the losing team. Then, of the remaining 3, Trump fires one of them. The final two candidates debate on national TV (Ryan Seacrest is the moderator) and we vote.

It would still be more dignified than watching Gary Bauer flip pancakes. That's all I'm saying.

|10.4.05 @ 4:30PM|#

The only requirement that the constitution has for SCOTUS judges is their "good behavior".

Am I the only person who believe the constitutional convention could have done a more thorough job in this area?

The constitution does not explicity disqualify a horse from taking a SCOTUS seat. However, the horse must behave properly at all times. Furthermore, there is no provision for removing SCOTUS judges who are found guilty of bad behavior. What a plum job! No qualifications or experience is required to obtain the job, and they can't fire you for the rest of your life!

R C Dean|10.4.05 @ 4:32PM|#

The return of book burning, creationism in the classroom, invading every Third World country...."

When was the book burning? I must have missed that.

We have invaded exactly one third world country (Afhganistan), and have left the other hundred odd resolutely alone, unless they got hit by a typhoon.

Creationism, alright, I'll give you that. Except for the life of me I can't figure out what the President has to do with elementary school curricula.

I'm afraid that even after 6 years of Bush, the left's fears are still symptoms of paranoia, not reflections of reality.

|10.4.05 @ 5:13PM|#

"We have invaded exactly one third world country (Afhganistan)" Huh? Iraq doesn't count? You can claim it's a justified invasion, a liberatng invasion or whatever, but it's still an invasion...

|10.4.05 @ 5:19PM|#

"Commander-in-Chief" may have all the subtlety of bacon, but Gena Davis is hot.

|10.4.05 @ 5:48PM|#

David T., I don't think Iraq was, technically speaking, considered a Third World country.

RC Dean: Yeah, book burnings.

|10.4.05 @ 8:15PM|#

You know, the 150 million vs. 300 million thing drives home something Bush said in his announcement: among all the candidates he considered for the jobe of Associate Justice for the Supreme Court, one name stood out: Hariet Miers.

McConnell, Lutting, Brown...hey, what's this? Lottery Commission? Bar Association? City Council? Staff Secretary? Tried cases in front of - get this - state AND federal courts! Quick, get her on the phone right away!

|10.5.05 @ 12:27AM|#

I agree with thoreau's proposition, except for the part at the end where either a Democrat or a Republican becomes president.

|10.5.05 @ 12:32AM|#

What's that you say, Phil? The government wasn't burning the books? In fact it was private citizens burning their private property? Fascinating.

|10.5.05 @ 1:16AM|#

"You know, the 150 million vs. 300 million thing drives home something Bush said in his announcement: among all the candidates he considered for the jobe of Associate Justice for the Supreme Court, one name stood out: Hariet Miers."

I think it went like this.

Miers was in charge of the search for a justice, right?

She walks into the oval office for a meeting to go over potential choices. She's carrying a big file of documentation.

After some pleasantries, she starts talking about the first candidate. Bush interrupts her, "Harriet, how long is this going to take? I wanna go work out."

Harriet responds, "Well, sir, there are 20 or so potential candidates to go over. It could be an hour or two."

"Two hours? I need to hit the epileptical, I don't have time for this crap. You do it. You're the new justice. Congratulations. Now go get me my iPod."

|10.5.05 @ 1:21AM|#

Crushinator writes: "Am I the only person who believe the constitutional convention could have done a more thorough job in this area?"

Consider that requirements we'd like to see *now* would have been impossible back then, because the American judicial system hadn't been created yet.

|10.5.05 @ 8:13AM|#

Phil: "I don't think Iraq was, technically speaking, considered a Third World country."

I would disagree. Having great oil wealth does not necessarily mean you're not a Third World country when a corrupt political elite siphons it off. Nigeria has lots of oil wealth, too, but few people would deny it's a Third WOrld country.

|10.5.05 @ 3:49PM|#

If I recall correctly, the designation "Third World" is derived mostly from the Cold War, and referred to political alignment as much as economic development. The USA, Canada, Western Europe and Japan were the First World; Russia and Eastern Europe and the other Commie contries were the Second World, and everyone else, more or less not permanently aligned with either side, were the Third World. The Third World also tended to be pretty poor.

Now we don't really have a First and Second World, just the Third World or "economically underdeveloped" countries. I'm not sure whether China counts as a Third World country or not. I'm not even sure about present-day Russia. I would tend to consider Irag the Third World. But basically, the categories are all screwed up now. Really untidy.