UPDATE 12:43 PM PST — This keeps getting more interesting. According to President Bush, the Miers nomination all comes down to the Jesus factor. Did God tell Bush to choose Miers like God told Bush to invade Iraq?
. . .
Some lefty bloggers seem excited, even giddy, that Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court is being attacked by the Right. Some pundits speculate that Bush might give in to the conservative calls for him to withdraw her nomination. My take on all this madness is simple: Never underestimate the power of the dark side. To put it bluntly, the conservative knee jerk reaction to the Miers nomination is nothing but a Rovian mindf*%k.
About half of conservatives appear strongly vocal about Miers lack of qualifications. The other half remain silent and are blessed with the gift of blind faith. Yesterday, the Heretik summarized the latest hubbub about Miers’ nomination. Demented blonde fembots Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham have dared to spit in the face of Dear Leader by denouncing Miers and charging Bush with cronyism. Their fake-out games in the media are working quite well.
So, what about that secret phone call between Karl Rove and James Dobson? Rove went directly to the spokesman of the Christian dominionist movement to reassure them of Miers’ staunch conservative credentials. Here’s Sponge Dob on Miers (from Newsday):
“It’s what we all know now, that Harriet Miers is an evangelical Christian, that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life, that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion, that she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life.”
Bingo! Don’t tell me that George W. Bush would appoint a Souter to the court. There’s no chance in hell. Miers will turn out to be just what the Right desires and will perform a two-fold function for the ruling establishment. First, she will champion the conservative movement by voting to repeal women’s rights, workers’ rights and environmental protection. Second, she will defend the executive power of the “best governor ever” and bail him out of trouble if he ever faces prosecution once he leaves office.
Am I the only one who thinks the Right is trying to fake out the Left with their faux rage against Bush? Then again, I’m just a young, cynical exiled blogger who doesn’t know much. Time will tell.
8 Comments on "I’m Just Wild About Harry!"
rubber hose:
the rage is real
the right’s infighting over the miers nomination is really interesting to watch…
Jeff Allred:
Agreed. And remember that James Dobson, one of the most influential and prominent evangelicals in the country, has had a tete a tete w/ Harriet and is assuring his flock that she’s legitimately neanderthal on abortion.
The only dissent that genuinely signals (a little bit of) trouble for (a few) conservatives, in my view, is that of George Will and Co. Cons like Will are nostalgic for the era in which “conservative” and “intellectual” were not mutually exclusive; they are thus embarrassed at the promotion of another grossly underqualified jurist to the Supreme Court. The rest of the GOP won’t let embarrassment crowd out the electoral benefits conferred by the yoking of millions of evangelicals to the financial elites that, on their own, could never win a majority of votes anywhere outside of a mahogany conference table.
Miers will sit next to Thomas, copying his notes, themselves copied from Scalia. When the last centrist is bumped off the end of the bench by this diabolical game of jurisprudential “telephone,” we’ll know it’s time for the Rapture. Then we can all hock our hat, balls, and front seat in Hell.
ol cranky:
Agi
I’ve always thought it was a fake out too. That being said, I was surprised to see that Bush essentially admitted part of the reason for his nomination of Meirs was the significant role her religion plays in her life. It shows the plan is to find a way tobe able to officially turn this country into a Conservative Christian country - serves the moderate reps right, pity the rest of us will get punished as well.
blogenfreude:
Agi - trust everyone, but cut the cards. You might be right. Of course, your namesake blog has a different, slightly irreverent take.
And who exiled you? Not me.
Kate:
I agree with you, Agit. But I suppose that’s because this administration has turned me into a conspiracy theorist. The dark side has turned these into dark days, I tell you!!
Marco:
God bless fucking America and Ozzy Osborne.
Suzy Shedd:
I certainly am willing to believe it’s all a fake out — I’m just not ABLE to. I don’t think Bush has any interest in or respect for the religious right; all he’s ever cared about is their votes, their organizing ability and their extremely (IMHO) UNchristian viciousness toward anyone who doesn’t agree with them. HE’s not running for office again, so he doesn’t really need them. My own (admittedly out there) theory is that he’s tired of being president — it’s no fun, people are mean to him, and it’s not working out like he thought it would. So why NOT put the nice lady with the crush on him on the Supreme Court? Gee, she goes to a church that hates abortion and gays — what more could anyone want? And Rove was (I devoutly hope) so busy trying to figure out how to avoid jail time that he let the whole idiotic idea fly right by him.
There was no way we were going to get a halfway decent nominee, so the only (teeny) advantage to Miers is that she’s unlikely to be influential. However, she doesn’t need to have influence; she only has to vote. We knew it was going to be bad and it is.
Libby:
That was my take on the nomination from the first day, Agitprop.
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