Could Harriet Miers be blackmailing Bush?Interesting thought. Blackmail, bribery and smear jobs seem to be the operative modalities of this group.
She has been his attorney, and possibly more, for several years. I'm sure she knows a lot that could bring down of people.
Still, I would cite history. As noted some days ago, when Bush the elder was veep, his chief of staff -- an Admiral named Murphy -- used to "procure" women for him (or so claims the usually-reliable Joseph Trento). Yet in 1988, Bush rather callously tossed Murphy aside. He did the same to his mistress, Jennifer Fitzgerald. They were told they were on their own.
The Bushes don't seem to be the type of people who worry about blackmail.
Do I think Miers aches to strike down Roe v. Wade? No. John Roberts may not have that intention either.
To reiterate an argument made earlier: Legalized abortion has been, in an odd way, good for the G.O.P. Many anti-abortion crusaders go to the polls on that issue and that issue alone, and they all vote Right.
Yes, I know that, right now, they are ticked off by the Miers nomination -- but so what? Look at the longer view. Are the Religious Rightists going to switch to the Democrats? Of course not. Are they going to stay home on voting day? No. They know that giving up on the political process means ceding the abortion issue.
As long as abortion remains legal, the Republicans can count on a large army of ultra-motivated soldiers.
And if abortion became illegal? That army would dwindle -- just as the number of people who agreed with the idea of banning alcohol shrank considerably after Prohibition was enacted. Ultimately, the GOP would lose many members.
If the Republicans really wanted to end abortion, Reagan would not have picked Sandra Day O'Connor.
5 comments:
The right-wing "outrage" over this choice looks so preposterous -- do the American Taliban really think a BushCo evangelical from Texas is a closet liberal who wants to take "God" off dollar bills -- that you have to wonder if it's not being orchestrated, to ease her confirmation.
The Democratic defense of this undistinguished Bush syncophant is even more puzzling. Do we have here in the making another triumph of democracy, recalling the last "bipartisan agreement", with the Republicans agreeing not to outlaw the fillibuster, provided Democrats agree not to use it? With Democratic strategists like this, who needs Republicans?
All this may be sport for the privileged Washington crowd and people like Harry Reid,who don't rely on the Supreme Court for protections against business or government, but what about the rest of us?
As for blackmail -- I don't believe it in this case either. But the Bushies do buy silence, it just comes in the form of government appointments and contracts, rather than bags of money left under bridges or in trash receptacles....
Miers is just another distraction, geez by now the gang is so obvious in all of their tricks. I think by now Bush would have appointed Barney, his dog, if he could have to cause the biggest stir. Look at what they have to deal with. Time to make some noise happen in another direction besides Rove.
Could this nomination simply be a way to fill in time and appear decisive (assuming inevitable Senate rejection) before the real candidate is proferred?
Some people say Reid's suggestion that
Bush nominate Miers was a trojan
horse--that BushCo assumed that as Bush's
former counsel the attorney-client
privilege would apply but in fact, as was
proven in the Ken Starr inquisition
against Clinton, the White House counsel
works for the American people and no
privilege applies.
If this is true, she's open to being
questioned on a lot of juicy stuff like
the dialogue at the time of the Downing
Street Memos, and was the "Bin Laden
Determined to Strike in US" memo really 11
pages like the Germans say, and just who
was involved in outing Val Plame and who
was involved in the coverup conspiracy?
Personally, I think Presidnet Bush is doing his own version of 'packing the court' for when that traitor Rove gets his day(s) in court.
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