Goodbye, Harriet! It's been fun.

[Plaid Adder]

You know how in some families, it is traditional to open on present on Fitzmas Eve, and then the rest on Fitzmas Day?

Now, before all the negative nellies start reminding me that this only means that Bush will have the chance to pick someone worse, don't bother, I know that. I also know about all the various ways in which this period could still just become the last positive blip on the screen before universal darkness swallows us all. I figure since we all know that, why not experiment with focusing on some of the things that are happening that might actually be hopeful? It costs nothing.

As for the timing, I have already seen people saying they just did this to distract people from the announcement of the indictments. Maybe. I think it's more likely that the timing has more to do with the fact that Harriet Miers has taken the first step in the process, freaked out, and realized that she simply cannot get through it. Remember, her first answers to the Senate questionnaire were returned as "inadequate" and "insulting." Other commentators have described them as not even demonstrating the knowledge and expertise expected from the average first-year law student. I think she just couldn't face having to sit down with whoever they've hired to coach her and cribbing up a second set that might persuade them that she can actually do this, knowing all the while that as soon as she got to the confirmation hearings, she was going to be flayed, flogged, and drawn and quartered.

These people are, no matter how easy it is for us to forget that, human beings. Miers was, perhaps, excited and flattered that Bush thought she could do the job; but it can only have been intensely painful to discover that every other human being in the country was of the contrary opinion. She was looking at weeks of humiliation on national television, followed by a vote she would probably lose. I think most people would bail at that point, no matter how cool and brilliant they thought Bush was.

Here's what's good about this:

1) Bush has been forced to change his mind about something. The same thing recently happened with his decision to make it possible for contractors to pay below the prevailing wage in New Orleans: he has now announced they're restating the law he suspended in order to do that. That's twice in two weeks he has failed to 'stay the course.' If he and his crew have now adopted the strategy of ACTUALLY CHANGING POLICY ONCE IT'S CLEAR THAT IT IS ONLY HURTING THEM AND EVERYONE ELSE, well, that's good news for 150,000 Americans in Iraq right now, even if it is not necessarily going to help Iraq much at this point.

2) No matter how you look at it, the Miers nomination was a disaster. Even if you believe that it was really a cunning ploy to soften up opposition to his next nominee (where the reaction will no doubt begin with, "Well, at least she's qualified, even if she does drink the blood of unwed pregnant mothers for breakfast"), it has cost him more than he could ever have imagined. The Christian right no longer trusts him as far as they can throw him, and that portion of the party that has not turned their brains over to Dobson has been shocked and awed by the recklessness and stupidity of that nomination. And, as the crowning turd in the waterpipe for Bush, he has had to admit--TWICE now!--that he made a mistake.

3) Miers will not become a Supreme Court justice. I know that someone else will, and it will probably be someone else I don't like very much. But for me, Justice Miers would have been the last nail in the coffin of this country--because such an outcome could *only* have been proof of endemic and irreversible corruption. What scared me about Miers was that she was so incompetent for the job that she could *only* have functioned as a rubber stamp; her job would simply have been to vote the way her masters wanted her to. With someone who actually has a history of interpreting the Constitution professionally, even if s/he is a right wingnut, there is at least the *possibility* that once in a while, an understanding of the principles of constitutional law might induce him/her to do the right thing.

What's bad:

1) Up next: Justice Priscilla Owen. Shudder. Shudder.

On the whole, though, I feel good. And Harriet, as you ride into the sunset, may I just add my blessings to those of your other wellwishers and say, "Screw you and the horse you rode in on!"

And the boots you licked to get there, too,

The Plaid Adder

[joeybee12]

1. I think you're right about Prsicilla Owens...the right has told Dumbo

he needs to listen to them.

Then again, Bush is a bitter, little man. He may be so pissed off at the right that brought Harriet down that he nominates someone as wishy-washy, or who could be seen as being--gasp--pro-choice.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Some Republicans are beginning to rue the right wing

John Danforth, former Senator from MO, was quoted on local radio (KSMU) as saying he didn't like the stranglehold the "evangelicals" (his term) have on Bushco. Danforth is himself an Episcopal priest and a staunch Republican of the old school-he's been governor and senator from his state. His remarks seem to imply that there might be a split between the traditional Republicans and the right wing religious whackos.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Hear hear!

Well said! I agree with your conclusions about the Miers nomination. But I'm also wondering if her handlers realized that if she went before the Judiciary Committee she might have to disclose some unsavory truths about her boss in regards to TANG and other matters.

[Beetwasher]

4. Yeah, And Chimpy Must Be MEGA Pissed Off, Like, Shitting Nails Pissed

And right now his brain (Rove) is otherwise occupied. So, Chimpy is essentially on his own and probably so furious he could do something monumentally stupid (and probably will) just out of spite.