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October 27, 2005Harriet, Bring the Cannoli!I knew better than to make a whole catagory for you, Harriet! But thank you for your service to this country and your president, and thank you for maintaining your dignity while all around you people were stomping and huffing and braying, and otherwise losing theirs. I was frankly at the point where I was ready for Harriet’s withdrawal - I was fed up with the intra-conservative party sniping, which got completely out of hand, and I was fed up with some of the juvenile crap I was reading from our “best and our brightest,” (”[President Bush] likes terrorists more than he likes us!” particularly galled me. I won’t name the writer who expressed that thought, but as Red Will Danahar would say, “that name is on my list!”) I know many, many people felt President Bush made a huge blunder with this nomination and that he “hurt himself” by doing so. Perhaps that is so. All I know for certain is that many, many folks who have been quick to decry the often beastly comportment of folks on the left, did some comparable duty on the right. Some made tremendous blunders of personal dignity and human decency, and served up extremely unattractive and unhelpful servings of spite and malice. And the few blubberers who boo-hooed that they felt unloved made me ashamed of my side, because I had believed us incapable of such adolescent high drama and angst. Believe me, whatever President Bush did “to himself,” however he has hurt his presidency by daring to nominate someone outside the pre-approved list - whatever misstep he has made - the chatterers on the right have also done plenty to hurt themselves. Their behavior over this nomination often strayed too far into personal invective and high-school sneering, and for some of us watching from the sidelines, some conservative “lights” have dimmed remarkably in our regard. While the defensive “we are NOT elitists” continued to ring out, one only had to read George Will, or a few others, to understand how very, very well some of these folks regard themselves. They regard themselves so well (and regard the rest of us too stupid to fall in line with them) that they literally made my flesh crawl. (”She’s not one of us…“) So, Harriet is gone, farewell, Harriet! I expect the next time David Frum meets you, or any mutual acquaintance, he will plead, like Tessio in The Godfather, “tell the President I always liked him; it was just business.” I kinda hope Ted Olsen will be nominated in her place, but that’s just me. In looking around the blogosphere I note that a few inveterates - but only a few - still feel the need to snark adolescently at the President. The thing is done. They can grow up and try to move on or sit around nursing their grudges. I won’t link to them, because they are negativists - and the one thing we do not need right now are bitter negativists. It is always good to remember that there are no negatives in Christ. If one can only focus on negatives, one is not looking for Christ in every issue. That said - trying not to be negative here - by “borking” Miers, I hope the right has not handed the left the sword upon which all of us will be impaled. Other blogs discussing: UPDATE: Someone just emailed me asking me if my day-one “rope-a-dope” theory - that the President submitted Harriet as a rebuke to GOP Senators who had said they would not fight for a Janice Rogers Brown, and daring them not to fight for the next one - still holds? Eh. Whatever. The President is not a stupid man or a reckless one. There WAS a reason for the Miers nomination. It was not made in a vacuum, and when people sneer, “he nominated her because Laura wanted a woman,” they don’t sound much different from the lefty wingnuts who sneer, “we only went back to Iraq so he could finish his father’s war.” I think DJ Drummond makes some excellent points and probably is quite right about how the Dems will use all this for each and every future judicial nominee that comes down the pike. This is not, for all the gloating going on on a few sites, a glorious day for Conservatives. AJ is feeling bitter and suggesting that we former Democrats are “Mudbloods” to the right. ONE LAST PREDICTION: The next nominee will not be Janice Roberts Brown. I’m not saying bank on it. But I don’t think she’ll get the nod. I’d be happy to be wrong. Ted Olsen sounds good to me…but…oh, my! He has never been a judge, either! http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/10/27/harriet-bring-the-cannoli/trackback/ 28 Responses to “Harriet, Bring the Cannoli!” |
October 27th, 2005 at 10:32 am
I remain convinced Harriet would have given us a pro-life vote on the SCOTUS.
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By the way, branching off into Godfather lore: only Abe Vigoda could have delivered that line and made it memorable. How did they do that so often in The Godfather?
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No Gotti-esque 21st century mobster can ever compare mentally with the hairy Sicilian capo like Vigoda.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:32 am
Well now the issue for the right moving forward is has any permanent damage been done? The left imploded over these types of things because they couldn’t let them go and get back to the business of whatever it was they thought they should be doing.
The groups that make up the Republican coalition need to let it go and forget about it. If they don’t they will splinter and fairly soon will be looking around trying to figure out what happened to their majority.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:56 am
I have very much appreciated your coverage of this and share your disappointment/disgust at the behavior of various conservative pundits, etc.
I hope Tommy is right, but I fear that the revelation of how much contempt some of our members hold others may make that difficult. Who wants to work with someone who thinks you’re a moron? I think a lot will depend on the behavior of the anti-Meiers group.
October 27th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Miers Withdraws
Via MSNBC: WASHINGTON - Confronted with criticism from both liberals and conservatives, Harriet Miers on Thursday withdrew her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a statement, President Bush said he “reluctantly accepted” her decision to withdraw,…
October 27th, 2005 at 11:51 am
L’Affaire Miers will bring no credit to those who orchestrated her downfall.
Your remark about those making your ‘flesh crawl’ will prove to be prophetic.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Couldn’t agree with you more. George Will, the brats at NRO, and the two shreiky blondes were particularly obnoxious. Will seems to have gotten in touch with his inner lout, and fallen in love with what he saw. His columns were disgraceful ad hominem attacks, and exhibited a degree of hubris that was disgusting.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Gotta hand it to Harriet - she behaved with a LOT more class than her on-line detractors, including several Catholic bloggers whom I formerly thought well of.
And I have to agree with Sal who says:
“…I fear that the revelation of how much contempt some of our members hold others may make that difficult… I think a lot will depend on the behavior of the anti-Meiers group.”
I imagine they’re too busy popping the champagne corks and patting themselves on the back right now to care - flushed with “victory,” don’t you know. I hope they’ll eventually sober up and be properly ashamed of their behavior, but I’m not going to bet on it.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
Since I didn’t hear her responses to questions at the hearings, I’m still not sure that she was a bad choice. One result of this is that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is now the de facto head of the Senate Democrats, if not of the whole Democratic Party. It was his response to Miers nomination, in which he found several different ways to cast doubt on her “conservative” credentials that seemed to start the ball rolling and get the Conservatives in a panic–at least the elitist Conservatives.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
Well, you at least gave her fair treatment Anchoress. But as for those NRO types who now expect us to kiss and make up, after the vicious slanders against, not only her, but many of us as well, I can only echo the comments of Dick Cheney to Pat Leahy — GFY.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
If my prior comment was not appropriately genteel, let me say then that the Frum-Tessio comparison really doesn’t fit. Frum is more like Fredo, thinking himself smarter than he actually is, and going against the family. In fact, so egregious was the betrayal, that we must skip right over “Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.” and we must go directly to –
“Fredo, you’re nothing to me now. You’re not a brother, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you at the hotels, I don’t want you near my house. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there.”
October 27th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
Thank you, Harriet, for serving our country well! One thing I learned in all of this is that I wished I had you as a friend. I am sorry that you won’t get a chance to prove yourself. Know that you have already proved your courage and dedication by accepting the nomination, when you were sure you didn’t want to be put through the process. I wish you continued success in all your future endeavors.
October 27th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
my day-one “rope-a-dope” theory - that the President submitted Harriet as a rebuke to GOP Senators who had said they would not fight for a Janice Rogers Brown, and daring them not to fight for the next one
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If that once was the plan, and I thought at the time that it might have been, such a brilliant strategy was completely blown by the rabid ferocity of the anti-Miers crowd. If it had been the savagery of the left that forced out Miers, thereby drawing and expending much of the fire of the left and alienating the country, JRB might have had an easier time of it. However, by the savagery coming from the right, the left is still and again free to engage in borking, which the right has now shown to be an acceptable practice.
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The big question now is — who in the world would want to go through this process???? Which of the people on the NRO short list said before, and certainly will say now, NO!! How many people, knowing now that they will be savaged no matter what, from whichever side, will be willing to accept the nomination process??? Very few, I would expect. Very few goods ones, that is. The only people that would be willing to accept it are those that really, really want the job, and if they want it that bad, if anybody wants power that much, that should make us all concerned because they would make it their own personal fiefdom.
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Whichever way you look at this, the right has shot itself in the foot — unfortunately it was after putting its foot in its mouth.
October 27th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
I think she would have been a solid conservative vote. All those old documents, speeches, etc. were before her evangelical reawakening. And Bush has worked closely with her for over 10 years. Wonder if the zealots will eventually like the way the next nominee ultimately votes on their issues. They may end up with quite a surprise.
October 27th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
“If one can only focus on negatives, one is not looking for Christ in every issue.”
This morning I posted the comment on
Tigerhawk - he felt sorry for Ms.Miers.
He was not with us in believing.
My comment:
What if Harriet, a rather humble lady, was part of and a volunteer in plot to put some backbone into the
wimpy R senators.
No amount of money could have been spent on any advertising/education programs that would have put the issues of the SCOTUS
as front and center in
America.
If O’Connor votes for partial birth abortions, it will be more than clear to America what is important.
The wimp R’s weren’t afraid
of GW any longer but they are afraid of their voters.
I have been commenting from
start that when the Senators
told GW they didn’t want a
knock down drag out fight, he gave them a Reid suggestion, knowing the base
would go crazy. First one leading charge was former
GW speechwriter, David Frum
of the “axis of evil”. Hmmmm.
Recall that Miers is not one
who does the cocktail circuit in DC. She will not be humiliated, she will
be laughing all the way to the bank.
Hey Libs and RINOS - Gotcha!
By LARWYN, at 11:49 AM
It is not that I believe that GW is
infallible. I do believe that he had
heard from the wimps R senators and members of the gang of 14 that they would not fight.
Begala saying right now “Bush is weak,
looks weak” I will repeat:
Hey Libs and RINOS - Gotcha!
Now just prayers for tomorrow.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
Miers: My End-Game Opinion
Earlier, i posted my preliminary opinion on the Miers nomination. At the time i fully expected the controversy to die down, although i was mildly disappointed with the choice. Or rather, i was more disappointed with the fact that Bush…
October 27th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Hey Anchoress,
I am not bitter. I am resigned to the reality of the split. Reading you and Hugh Hewitt and DJ Drummond it is clear we are not keen in being associated with what happened to Harriet Miers. I am only pointing out that this kind of mob venality repulses a lot of people who are not willing to do win at any costs. I never understood why so many cons panicked as they did when Miers was nominated. But they did. That was pretty sad in itself. But then the gutter ball was a disaster. I have no interest in The Corner or Redstate anymore. Their opinions mean nothing to me because I have lost respect for those offering them.
I could be convinced to see things differently - but I am not going to tip my hand and explain how that could come about. But I will tell you I am not holding my breathe.
Bitter? No. This was going to happen sooner or later. I always thought it would be on immigration. I have lots of conservative friends who remind me I am not a true conservative! I remind them that the ‘true conservatives’ do not number enough to win elections. So either they work with the rest of us or we cut deals with the John Breuax’s and Zell Miller’s!
October 27th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
George W must nominate a woman because it will be untenable and seen as illegitimate if a bunch of men are the ones that overturn Roe. Just as in the fact that most pro-life organizations see the wisdom and necessity of having women at the front of the fight, so too is it absolutely necessary that the opinion to bury Roe is written by a woman.
October 27th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
Random thoughts from another “mudblood.”
I feel very sad for Harriette Miers tonight. And I feel sad for the country–why would any person put themselves through that?
Defensive and hypercritical, the conservative elites of Will, Coulter, the NRO crowd and others savaged a woman-”affirmative action pick”-who was a 1. Southerner, 2. Evangelical Christian, 3. Southern-school educated person, 4. a former Democrat. True, she wasn’t the best pick out there. But the savagery of the attack suggests something else going on–a deep inferiority complex on the part of these Elites, in my opinion, who saw her as the confirmation of the stereotype the Left has created of the rightwing boogeyman. The words, the tone, the look on the faces of some of them, when they trashed Miers makes me sick.
Because I know I’m very much like Miers; my life story and vitae would be very similar to hers. And now I know what my party’s rulers think of me.
October 27th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
At this point the atmosphere had unfortunately become so poisoned that this comes as a relief.
AJ Strata, I’m with you. It seems that when a group gets into power, it tends to forget that the only way it got there was by appealing to those in the middle rather than to its most extreme wing. Those who ignore that lesson, as many conservatives are doing now, do so at their peril.
I’m neither bitter nor surprised, just disppointed. And I’m not saying I was a big Miers supporter, but she should have been given her hearing and her up and down vote, and she shouldn’t have been trashed in the stupid way many saw fit to write about her. There are ways to disagree with an appointment that don’t have this level of unwarranted vitriol.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
Not being American I shouldn’t be too disgusted by this affair, but it has so many resonances with the situation here in Australia (plus I have such boundless admiration and affection for President Bush) that I feel touched by it.
The conservative movement here has far too many of the arrogant elitist / ideological nincompoop types who have been (dis)gracing the pages of NRO and such lately.
Here in Victoria the parties of the Right are particularly burdened with obnoxious old tory blue-bloods (the kind you fought in the War of Independance), and they can’t win an election no matter how they huff and puff — is it any surprise?
October 27th, 2005 at 9:09 pm
IMHO, George Will was the voice of the anti-Miers push, and if he’s not elitist (with his stupid bow-tie, even!), then I don’t know who is. It’s not even that everyone against her is an elitist, but they sure parroted the talking points of the right-wing talking heads (IOW, the media elite).
I’m just glad it’s over and I hope the anti-Miers wolfpack will get over themselves ASAP. The post-mortem continuation of the Miers damnation and the “Snoopy dances” are enough to make me puke.
Anyway, it’s funny you mentioned Ted Olson–I was thinking the SAME THING. I think he’d be a spectacular nominee and Associate Justice, from what I know of him, and I still think bringing in someone not on the bench is a good idea.
Regardless, I think Bush is going to hit a home run this time around with his next pick.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
Your remark on hoping we haven’t ‘impaled’ ourselves is spot on.
My fear is that the ‘agendistas’ have tasted both power and blood- and those are not so easily put back in the bottle.
I hope- pray- I’m wrong. The implications are tremendous, for both sides of the aisle.
If anything empowers the hard left, it will be realizing that they too, can subvert the system. Soros money- or witholding of it, will scare the hell out of any rep not going along with a certain agenda. Look for Moveon and Michael Moore to set the agenda.
Miers should have been allowed to sink or swim in a hearing. The process, as well as Miers, was torpedoed.
October 28th, 2005 at 11:15 am
Well, I stood pretty strongly against Miers also and, though I”m not “George Will, the brats at NRO, and the two shreiky blondes”, I agree with a huge hunk of what they said and how they said it.
I’m just saying that if some folks want to hurl invective while criticizing people who were hurling invective, I provide an actual live target who will argue back.
October 28th, 2005 at 11:22 am
Take it outside, guys! I’d prefer no hurling invective, if that can be managed! Can’t we all just get along?
Hey, Jimmie - Buster is playing The Wolf in Into the Woods!
October 28th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
On Harriet Miers, The Blogosphere And The Future Of The Conservative Movement
I already told you my feelings on the blogosphere’s reaction to Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court.Very little is known about Ms Miers. Very few facts have been dug up and probably much has been simply fabricated. There still…
October 29th, 2005 at 4:56 pm
Miers’ withdrawal from nomination is probably for the best
Harriet Miers, who was a candidate for chief justice in the Supreme Court, has withdrawn from the nomination following severe criticism by the conservative movement.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
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December 19th, 2007 at 8:02 am
[...] who are not gloating right now. I especially like DJ Drummond’s response. The Anchoress has a good post out too. Our side left a bad taste in my mouth I will not soon get [...]