Mixed Responses

Hugh Hewitt blogged Harriet Miers isn't a Justice Souter pick, so don't be silly. It is a solid, B+ pick. The first President Bush didn't know David Souter, but trusted Chief of Staff Sunnunu and Senator Rudman. The first President Bush got burned badly because he trusted the enthusiams of others. The second President Bush knows Harriet Miers, and knows her well. The White House Counsel is an unknown to most SCOTUS observors, but not to the president, who has seen her at work for great lengths of years and in very different situations, including as an advisor in wartime.... Memo to the White House folks: It might be a good time to nominate Roberts' replacement on the D.C. Circuit, and to do so with a nominee that even the hair trigger critics of the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately caucus understand.

Betsy is disappointed: To say that I'm disappointed in the nomination of Harriet Miers is an understatement. I don't buy that we need people who haven't been judges before. If Bush thought she was so wonderful, then appoint her to a lower court and let her get some seasoning. I'm on record in RWN's poll of bloggers on whom we were hoping that Bush would nominate and not nominate that I didn't want to see a crony nomination. This nomination smacks of a cop out and it will upset many conservatives who thought they were voting for high quality judicial nominations when they supported Bush.

Incidently, in the RWN poll Betsy referred to, I mentioned in my initial post on Harriet Miers, and The Anchoress is the only one who guessed correctly.

Leonard Leo is excited: I have worked closely with Harriet in the past and I am very excited about the president’s pick of my friend. As White House Counsel, she has helped carry out the President’s promise to find and select judicial nominees such as John Roberts who will interpret the law rather than make it up. She played a key role in the Roberts selection process, and was a strong advocate for breaking the filibusters in relation to Judges Priscilla Owen, William Pryor, and Janice Brown, among others.

Michelle Malkin is Utterly Underwhelmed

Personally I trust GWB enough to at least wait for the hearings to decide what I think. Initially I hoped that he would nominate Janice Rogers Brown, because I know that the Dems would have fillibustered her, and I thought the Republican party could have gotten some good material off the CSPAN cameras that would be very useful in 2006 and 2008 showing Dems opposing the first Black Woman ever nominated to the USSC, but GWB probably know a lot more that we do about Harriet Miers, and I guess he figured he could get her approved while he might not have gotten Janice Rogers Brown approved. He may also trust what Harriet Miers will do more than he trusts some of the other possible candidates.

With Justice Stevens age (and seeing how he stumbled walking down the steps with the new Chief Justice, Bush may well have at least one more appointment. If he does, I just hope he doesn't waste it on Alberto Gonzalez.