George W. Bush promised to appoint people to the Supreme Court in the mold of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.
The facts are these: the president has appointed judges – at all levels of the federal courts – that are extremely conservative. He has kept his promise.
But news of the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court sent shock waves through many right wing organizations who hoped for a name they recognized. Miers, who has no judicial experience, does not have a record on many of the issues important to social conservatives. She has not been one of the religious right’s cultural warriors.
This appointment was undoubtedly made because the president is in a weak political position and he knew a fight on a nomination to the Supreme Court could cripple the rest of his agenda. A woman with no record is easier to confirm than a man with a track record opposing abortion and affirmative action in judicial rulings.
In effect, as many commentators have pointed out, the president is asking his political base on the extreme right of American politics to trust him.
James Dobson, leader of the Republican Party-aligned Focus on the Family, told supporters today that he supported the president’s choice and trusted his judgment.
"I don't believe he would have nominated Harriet Miers if he knew that she was going to assassinate what he believed in and that the court would not be reformed the way he wants it to be…."
"She is a deeply committed Christian," Dobson said. "She has been a believer in Jesus Christ since the late 1970s. I know the person who led her to the Lord. I know the church that she goes to. I know it's a very conservative church. I know that she is a tithe-paying member at that church. I know that she has deep convictions about things. I have talked at length to people that know her—and have known her for a long time. Some of them have been a close personal friend of hers for 25 years. I trust these people because I know them—I know who they are and I know their character and I know what they stand their heart for the Lord."
“Lord,” of course, is a code word here for “GOP/Religious Right agenda.”
"I believe in trusting this president at this time because of the stand that he has taken and has implemented consistently over the last four years."
Trust the president. Trust James Dobson. Trust me.
Harriet Miers will reflect this president’s values and that will prove a disaster for all those concerned about civil rights, a woman’s right to choose, and Constitutional democracy. The theocracy dreamed about by the religious right is coming.
