RAGGED THOTS: A DC GOPer's Thoughts On Miers

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

A DC GOPer's Thoughts On Miers

The following is from a Republican friend in Washington (NOT my regular kibitzer ERA). It reflects, I believe, the views that some mainstream supporters of the president have when it comes to the nomination of Harriet Miers. It has only been edited slightly for clarity.

[A]fter letting the Harriet Miers news digest for the day and while rocking my toddler to sleep, I suddenly had an epiphany of what troubles me about this nomination.

The problem is that no one really knows what her epiphany was and what it was that drew her to the Republican Party and to Conservative principles. Every one of us who is active in the party knows exactly when it was that we identified ourselves as Republicans and we also know numerous other times through our development when these beliefs were solidified and challenged.

For many of us who came of age during the Reagan years, I think it is very proper of us to look at Ms. Miers and wonder what it is that causes her to define herself and align herself with the Republican Party.

Additionally, there are many out there who were long time Democrats, the so-called Reagan Democrats that still voted for some Democrats, but for whom Reagan was the shifting point in their political views. It is not apparent from what has been written so far that Ms. Miers was even a Reagan Democrat, for she backed Al Gore and supported the DNC as late as 1988. In 1988, she was forty-three years old. Few people at that age shift their political view points. Parties may move towards people in their forties and fifties [causing a Zell Miller or Ralph Hall to feel that the 'party was leaving them'], but they rarely move to a party [even Hall stayed a Dem until the 2002 redistricting forced him to switch]. If she was a Conservative Democrat, please tell us why she donated to the DNC and to Al Gore and effectively turned her back on the Reagan Revolution. Did she support the Reagan Revolution? Was she drawn to Goldwater in the 1960’s and 70’s when she obviously was in the prime of her intellectual development? If not Goldwater and Reagan, who were her early political intellectual influences?

I fear that Ms. Miers, while a skilled lawyer, lacks a sense of the greater purpose and of the principles that motivate many of us to forgo more lucrative opportunities to advance the cause of the party and of our ideas. It would appear that Ms. Miers has been driven through life by a desire to succeed in the legal profession and to break through barriers that needed to be broken, but at what point were her goals and objectives anything but the advancement of her own career? Were the donations to Democrats a play of political expediency designed to advance personal or rofessional goals?

Additionally, at what point did her career or a case take on a larger purpose? And more importantly, can she see the larger purpose and the big picture that every decision that she will face on the Court will be part of?

So kind of like that scene at the end of the movie Working Girl when Philip Bosco’s character Oren Trask asks Sigourney Weaver’s character Katherine Parker, what was the inspiration for her idea of merging Trask Enterprises with Metro Media, and all she can answer is “Jack help me out…” I want to ask and hope that someone asks Ms. Miers what her epiphany was and why it is she considers herself a Republican or a Conservative.

I hope that we get a better answer than “help me out…”

UPDATE: Another DC Republican weighs in forcefully: "I am stunned by 'A DC GOPer's Thoughts On Miers!!!!!!!!!'

Harriet Miers isn't a 'Reagan Democrat.' Shocking!!!!!!! And have you heard -- there's gambling going on over at Rick's Place.

How could Miers be a surprise to any Republican in this town???? Any Republican who thinks GWB would have appointed a Reaganite, whether Democrat or Republican, has been smoking crack for the last 5 years. Talk about denial!!!!! WHO AROUND GWB IS A REAGANITE!!!!!!?????? WHO?????? Cheney? No. Rumsfeld? No. (Unless you count his meetings with Saddam Hussein in the 80's.) Andy Card? No. Rove? No. His father, GHWB???? (No comment) Colin Powell? Gone.

I ask you? IT'S THE F@#$'IN FORD ADMINISTRATION!!!!!!!! (Hell, I thought the Energy Secretary was going to whip out a W.I.N. button yesterday) Miers is a "GWB-ite." Democrat vs. Republican have NOTHING to do with it. She believe in GWB and has been loyal to GWB. That's the only requirement needed. I believe the questions your source raise are valid since Miers has no judicial background. Her "political philosophy" should be open to questioning since she clearly has no "judicial philosophy." I'm sure Reaganites like Senator Brownback will grill Miers during her confirmation.

But, you need to sit your friend down and break the news to them . .. .GWB is NOT the heir to Ronald Reagan . . . he is the heir to Gerald Ford...and they'd better get over it because we have another three years of this Administration."

Cocktail parties in GOP land should be fun over the next few years!!! (Oh, he's not alone in being reminded of the W.I.N. buttons. Check out the Professor.)