The folks at the right-wing "Confirm Them" site are despondent over the Miers nomination, viewing this as a historic betrayal of the cause to remake the judiciary. The fear, I suspect is twofold. First, Miers has no track record on abortion and other hot-button issues, so no one knows where she really stands on anything, and the wingers want certainty. Second – and perhaps more important, since one assumes that Miers is in fact conservative – Miers is not well known, not well respected outside of Texas legal circles, and does not appear to be an intellectual heavyweight. This anecdoctal report supports the notion that Miers is not going to be able to persuade Justice Kennedy or anyone else on the Court to follow her lead.
If Miers is confirmed – and at this point I would hazard that there is significant doubt as to whether that will happen – she seems unlikely to be a terribly distinguished Justice. Remember Harrold Carswell, President Nixon’s second choice for the seat that ultimately went to Harry Blackmun? Senator Roman Hruska famously said of him before the Senate rejected his nomination: "Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?" President Bush apparently thinks so.
