by Jeff Davis

Remember the monumental debacle caused less than two months ago when the Federal Emergency Management Agency did in fact monumentally foul up the Hurricane Katrina relief? And it turned out that the blundering non-response was caused by one Mike Brown, the head of FEMA, a Bush crony and neocon club member whose prior experience consisted of being the director of the American Arabian horse fancier’s association? You know, the one who was fired from that job because he couldn’t even organize a horse show?

Now, one would THINK that by now even Dubya would have figured out that it’s not really a good idea to just pull names out of a hat to nominate to major governmental positions. Okay, political crony-ism is a fact of life in a democracy, but previous Presidents, even the atrocious Bill Clinton, at least made some basic effort to select someone who was plausible and halfway competent for key positions in the bureaucracy, judiciary, and executive branch. So who does Mini-Me nominate for Supreme Court justice? His own personal flunky, a woman named Harriet Miers, whose only major job prior to latching on to Bush as a sycophant was to be head of the Texas State Lottery Commission.

I swear, you couldn’t make this stuff up! I mean, COME ON NOW! The woman has never been a judge, even in small claims court, and although the waters are being muddied like crazy by the White House spin machine, it’s not clear if she’s ever even tried a case! And she is now being offered a lifetime appointment to the nine-member court that frequently re-writes our Constitution?

More and more leaks are starting to come out of the bizarre and paranoid Bush White House, where like Alice in Wonderland his aides and staff must be prepared to believe six impossible things before breakfast. More information is surfacing about Bush’s drunken rages and tantrums, his isolation from any critical comment or different point of view, his colossal ignorance about world affairs and political realities, his increasingly frequent “odd” mental states, and his demands for total sycophancy. His reasons for nominating this completely unqualified woman for the highest court are shrouded in mystery, but they appear to have to do with Miers’ total and complete flattery and subservience to her boss, a decade of telling him what he wants to hear.

Harriet Miers is said to have told a reporter once, “George W. Bush is the most brilliant man I know.” Now that’s scary!

A week before the unveiling of Miers, Republicans were excited over the prospect to unite the party behind, around, and in front of the president’s Supreme Court nominee. Now, in the wake of the Miers selection, there’s a conservative civil war over Miers and the Democrats are snickering in the shadows occasionally dribbling gasoline on the fire.

Harriet is in some ways a ‘two-fer’: 1) she is an absolute G.W. loyalist and is getting the penultimate ‘atta-girl’ for years of dedication and hard work; and 2) so much is unknown (or legitimately ‘privileged’) that those tasked with vetting her don’t know (and won’t find) anything about her.

The president is saying, “Trust me! I KNOW this woman and I trust her.” But to those Republicans who have been grudgingly losing trust in their president.that isn’t enough. In some ways it is similar to Ted Kennedy telling Mary Jo Kopeckne, “Let ME drive!”

Bush had promised to choose justices in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia (two rock solid conservatives). Miers is not a Scalia or Thomas.

The president coulda/shoulda bit the bullet and engaged the fight. Janice Rogers Brown would have been a great choice (as would others). Force the libs to try their filibuster and then make Sen. Bill Frist do what he should have done from the jump and correct the abuse of process introduced to the Senate by Mike Mansfield and Bob Byrd.

By nominating Miers the president has squandered a unique opportunity to create a Supreme Court that is Constitutionally grounded and principled.

Bush blinked and his administration, his party and the country will pay the price.