by Charles Coughlin

When the Democrats offered virtually no resistance to Bush’s previous Supreme Court nominee, Roberts, a strong suspicion arose that a secret deal had been made and that the next candidate would be a moderate or left-leaning candidate. It now looks like this is the case.

Bush’s latest Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is a sycophantic crony with liberal tendencies. One source reports “She is said to be a close personal friend of the President. According to an article in Salon Magazine, October 3, 2005, Miers has called President Bush ‘the most brilliant man I have ever met.’ ” (Maybe she has a sense of humor.) Given Bush’s increasingly troubled presidency and growing list of failures, Bush’s answer is to surround himself with even more subservient cronies.

A biography of Miers reports “…Her earlier political history shows support for the Democratic Party during the 1980s, with recorded contributions to Democratic candidates and causes, including the Democratic National Committee, the Senate campaign of Lloyd Bentsen and the 1988 Presidential campaign of Al Gore, totaling $3,000. Her last recorded contribution to a Democratic cause or campaign was in 1988.” This sounds like a fairly committed liberal. A $3,000 donation from a not especially wealthy individual implies a very strong political and philosophical commitment. People rarely change radically from one ideology to another. Most likely she is still very liberal at heart. The fact that she was Bush’s personal lawyer does not imply any strong devotion to conservative causes. This is clearly the “payback” for letting Roberts go through without a fight.

Another source reports “White House Counsel Harriet Miers, President Bush’s latest nominee for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, met with members of a gay rights group during her successful campaign for a seat on the Dallas City Council in 1989 and later appointed a prominent gay attorney to a city board that oversees federal grants… Lerro said he endorsed Miers for the Council post, saying he recalls that she expressed general support for equal rights for gays and indicated she opposed discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Two liberal Senators Charlie Schumer and Arlen Spector appear to support Miers. A WorldNetDaily article notes “Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.: ‘[W]hen I choose judges In New York, I look for practical experience. And so the fact that she hasn’t been a judge before, to me is actually a positive, not a negative.’ Miers got a warm reception on Capitol Hill today, meeting with Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Majority Leader Bill Frist.”

The same article notes “The right-wing organization Public Advocate was less diplomatic, coming out in strong opposition to Miers. Said the group’s president, Eugene Delgaudio: ‘The president’s nomination of Miers is a betrayal of the conservative, pro-family voters whose support put Bush in the White House in both the 2000 and 2004 elections and who were promised Supreme Court appointments in the mold of Thomas and Scalia. Instead we were given ’stealth nominees,’ who have never ruled on controversial issues, more in the mold of the disastrous choice of David Souter by this president’s father.’ ”

Possibly the biggest argument Republicans put forth for supporting George Bush was that he would be choosing Supreme Court Justices. Bush does not have the stomach to fight the liberals over each Supreme Court nomination so he apparently makes secret deals with them. Instead of a “conservative” president appointing only conservatives, the Democrats have succeeded in getting a weak Republican to make his appointments half liberal. Bush’s father also appointed a disappointing left-leaning moderate Douglas Souter, who recently voted against property rights.

The two Bush presidents have proven themselves more devoted to needless foreign wars and evil secret societies than to traditional conservative values. We could have been spared this latest “stealth liberal” on the Supreme Court if the right wing would wake up and start supporting an impeachment of Bush, Cheney and Bush’s neocon cabal.