Harriet Miers: A Role Reversal

Let me recommend this excellent piece in the Washington Post by Ed Morissey of Captain's Quarters on the Miers appointment. Ed does an outstanding job of analyzing the controversy amongst conservatives with one exception. I am wondering if Ed notices the irony of those within each camp. In the party loyalist camp are mostly social conservatives such as Hugh Hewitt, Marvin Olasky, and James Dobson. And the "Rebel Alliance" is composed of fiscal conservatives and small government conservatives that have been the traditional base of the GOP. My my, how times have changed. It is a sad state of affairs when fiscal conservatives are considered rebels in the Republican party.

Ed also points out in his blog piece something else that is really bothering me about this nomination fight: the fact that Miers is an evangelical Christian. As an evangelical Christian myself, I am extremely disturbed by the suggestion that this should qualify Miers. I am not at all interested in Miers' personal beliefs in anything other than Constitutional jurisprudence. Martin Luther provided much wisdom on this subject when he said:

"Better a wise Turk than a foolish Christian."

Finally, I think that Ed underestimates the furor of the "Rebel Alliance". He remarks towards the end of his article:

"However, we also see the realistic outcome of the bloody civil war that threatens to split the GOP over what clearly is a White House blunder -- one compounded by White House adviser Ed Gillespie's charging the Rebel Alliance with "sexism" at last week's meeting. With important mid-term elections next year and at least one more Supreme Court opening likely during Bush's term, we want to avoid a party schism that could make him a prematurely lame duck and hand the Democrats an opportunity to seize control of one or both houses of Congress."

At this point, I'm not sure what would be so bad with Republicans losing the House or Senate. What good have they done for conservatism? I've love to get back to the days of gridlock in Congress. Gridlock means that nothing gets done and our money can't be spent on pork.