Todd Zywicki, a conservative law prof and blogger at Volokh with whom I disagree on just about everything, is very unhappy about Harriet Miers’ nomination. In this post, however, he hits the nail on the head about a great deal more than Miers:
There is simply nothing in her background to suggest that she will exert any intellectual leadership inside or outside the Court…. It is really quite difficult to imagine that she will ever be in a position to exercise any substantial intellectual leadership of the Court. These appointments thus seem to confirm a common criticism of this President – that he is uninterested in ideas and interested only in power.
Right-o, Todd. George W. Bush does not care, and has never cared, about fomenting some sort of intellectual revolution in the federal judiciary. In fact, he doesn’t seem to care about anything that involves the word "intellectual." He nominated Miers because she has been intensely loyal to him for years, because he likes and trusts her, and because he thinks she’ll probably vote the "right" way most of the time, roughly in that order. Power, if you’re like Bush, means primarily putting those who have served you well in positions of power. Achieving long-term results unrelated to the power that you and your friends have accumulated runs a far-distant second. Think Dick Cheney gives a crap either way about abortion rights? Think again.
I’ve managed to save up roughly $74624 in my bank account, but I’m not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?