Beware Hurricane Harriet

Posted by Rachel Neumann at 1:00 PM on October 4, 2005.

No one ever said President Bush was smarter than Al Gore (well, except maybe for Harriet Meirs, who called Bush "the most brilliant man she'd ever met"), but a lot of people said they "liked" him better. All Bush had to do was speak in complete, unfumbled sentences and he seemed "presidential."

So can Harriet Meirs come across as worthy of the Supreme Court? Easily, I think. Will she be confirmed? I'm afraid so. She's no John Roberts, and certainly no Sandra Day O'Connor, but then, she doesn't have to be.

As John Dickerson puts it: The caricature of Miers that is emerging is so pathetic, her inadequacies so exaggerated, her inarticulateness so certain, that by the time she speaks in the committee room, she's almost certain to seem appealing.

Instead of continuing on about her lack of "judicial" experience, opponents should stick to the facts. Like Michael Brown, Harriet Meirs is a crony disaster appointment. Unfortunately for all of us, she's a disaster that would last a lifetime.

Rachel Neumann is Rights & Liberties Editor at AlterNet.