Nancy Goldstein (Raw Story) NAILS Harriet Miers' "qualifications."

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

HARRIET THE... WHY?
The right is wild about Harriet

By Nancy Goldstein | RAW STORY COLUMNIST

http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/goldstein/harriet_the_why_101305.htm

For five years, the fops, chickenhawks, and sons of privilege who make up this administration’s elite have been stomping around acting as though their positions at the top of the Bush food chain, where they advocate ultra-conservative ideology, were achieved via intellectual muscle and oh-so-butch ways.

Now the curtain has been pulled aside, and behind it sits Harriet Miers, a living, breathing incarnation of the real qualifications for a place at the frontline of Bush’s mission: a) unquestioning loyalty, to both Bush and his agenda, and b) the ability to argue, with a straight face, that decisions in favor of rich, powerful, evangelical, or anti-choice constituencies are merely the result of enacting the law as written — and/or a necessary first strike in the war against terror.

Optional but highly desirable extras for candidates may also include close ties to the energy industry (preferably oil), past experience in a previous Republican administration (preferably his dad’s, or one located in Texas), an Oedipal attachment to the president, and the ability to mix professed religiosity with sacrilegious behavior that would make Jesus weep and Moses smash tablets. Bonus points are routinely awarded for those talented individuals who can put a brown, black, golden, female, queer, or Jewish face on racist, elitist, misogynist, homophobic, and/or anti-semitic policy decisions.

But this is not the way that Bush’s acolytes like to think of themselves. For years they have promoted the myth that you had to be special to shill for this administration and its elitist, self-serving, hypocritical, and misguided policies. That’s why conservatives prefer their cronies and ideologues disguised a la John Roberts complete with a Harvard pedigree, prestigious professional stints under Rehnquist and Reagan, a Kennedy-esque wife and kids, and Clinton-esque skills re: evasion and legal hair-splitting. So that Roberts’ efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, roll back affirmative action, allow the execution of minors and the mentally retarded, criminalize queer sex, and entirely dismantle church/state separation will seem — you know — classy.

[warrens]

1. No matter how bad she is

She's better than anything the Federalist Society has planned. A WHOLE lot better.