QUOTE FOR THE DAY II

“Just talked to a very pro-Bush legal type who says he is ashamed and embarrassed this morning. Says Miers was with an undistinguished law firm; never practiced constitutional law; never argued any big cases; never was on law review; has never written on any of the important legal issues. Says she’s not even second rate, but is third rate. Dozens and dozens of women would have been better qualified. Says a crony at FEMA is one thing, but on the high court is something else entirely. Her long history of activity with ABA is not encouraging from a conservative perspective – few conservatives would spend their time that way. In short, he says the pick is ‘deplorable.'” – Rich Lowry, NRO. It seems to me at this stage that Miers might well be a quiet, decent judicial restraint conservative on the court. I’m still open to supporting her nomination. But a more fundamental issue is simply her intellectual and legal caliber. This is SCOTUS. After Roberts, we have gone from a clear A grade to a C +. It seems to me her nomination would be most successfully defeated merely by insisting that the court gets someone qualified in the most basic meaning of the term.