WAS HARRIET MIERS "MIERED?"

Laura Ingraham writes "Harriet Miers wasn't "Borked" or "Miered" or whatever gibberish some are saying. Her public speeches and pronouncements showed us that she was more likely to fine-tune her remarks to whatever audience she was speaking to, than adhere to a conservative judicial (or political) philosophy."

Laura's analysis misses the point.

1. Certainly, the vast majority of thoughtful conservatives are thankful for a "do over" on this nomination. The materials recovered by the MSM (not the hair-triggered movement conservative activists and elite "insider" pundits) were sufficient to create doubt about Miers' commitment to avoid judicial activism and to strictly interpret the text of the Consititution. So Laura is partly right!
2. HOWEVER, MIERS WAS "MIERED" in that she was immediately and vigorously attacked from virtually the first milleseconds of her nomination by activists and elites inside her own party. This instant opposition wasn't founded upon anything but speculation and disappointment. No evidence.
3. Miers was "Miered" because a significant minority immediately asserted that because she wasn't from that discrete and insular club of SCOTUS insiders (a miniscule number of constitutional law professors, commentators, Supreme Court litigators, special interest lawyers and appellate judges) that she was inherently unqualified and did not hold a conservative judical philosophy. The only evidence for this instant conclusion was her absence from the "insiders'" lists.
4. Miers was "Miered" because these instant attacks assumed Miers was a bad pick and then sifted through "the record" to find support for this conclusion. The attack advocates did not objectively consider the emerging information on Miers.
5. Miers was "Miered" because a significant quantum of criticism focused on irrelevant issues such as the rank of her law firm, her age, and her allegedly deficient writing skills.

Speedzzter has ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT the correct result would have been reached by a more respectful and sober process. Miers' writings and speeches would have been amply uncovered by the hapless MSM. Miers' allegedly poor performance on the Senate Committee questionaire would still have made news and raised thoughtful reconsideration. The hasty prejudging of Miers added nothing positive to the final outcome.

Speedzzter proposes that being "Miered" should mean immediate viceral opposition to someone in search of justification. It's a bit like knowing you don't like someone and then assembling justification for your feelings post hoc.

Being "Miered" also has a dimension of being turned on by one's own clan, party or culture with no opportunity to mount a defense. While selecting someone to serve on the Supreme Court ought not be decided by fraternal considerations, basic courtesy and human decency requires at least a minimal deference and respect for a nominee from one's own party.

Being "Miered" also connotes a "scorched earth" strategy. It means using anything, no matter how irrelevant, to grind down the victim. Although all legitimate formal courts have rules of evidence which focus the jury on relevant, probative evidence, the "court" of public opinion is a free-for-all. Opinion leaders should not unethically advocate against a nominee by bloviating about meaningless "facts" that don't fairly support the ultimate question. Probably 100,000 of the over one million lawyers in the USA could be a more reliably conservative justice than four or five of those now on the Court. Yet 99% of them would instantly be "Miered" by the reactionary "machine" because of where and how they've practiced law.

Being "Miered" is also a play on words. It represents being unable to gain any traction in a flood of negativity. It represents the best of intentions going awry in a smoky haze of premature opposition. Being "Miered" is becoming mired in a morass of criticism with no meaningful opportunity to fight out of it.

Harriet Miers WAS "miered." That the elitist reactionaries eventually proved to be right is no consolation.