One Whipped Mother

Texas Hold 'Em

Laura Bush defends her husband’s choice of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court Justice and attempts to deflect criticism from her own party by playing the ol‘ sex card

Why, how very “liberal” of you, Madam Bush. Nice try, but your shrill accusations, although based on some evidential whispers and grunts (your party is, unfortunately, rife with sexist, racist pigs, which is why many left-leaning and middle-of-the-road individuals oppose certain aspects of twisted extreme-right dogma, but that’s neither here nor there), doesn’t ring true. Defend hubby’s blatant cronyism all you want, but the fact remains that both Democrats and Republicans, those that aren’t invited to George’s weekly poker games, that it is, are a bit bemused, nay had it up to here with his King of the World tactics and eerily autocratic-like appointments.

Yes, Ms. Miers is an admirable woman in many respects….
* In 1985, Miers was selected as the first woman to become president of the Dallas Bar Association.
* In 1992, she became the first woman elected president of the State Bar of Texas. Miers served as the president of the State Bar of Texas from 1992 to 1993.
* She played an active role in the American Bar Association. She was one of two candidates for the number two position at the ABA, chair of the House of Delegates, before withdrawing her candidacy to move to Washington to serve in the White House. Miers also served as the chair of the ABA's Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice.
On numerous occasions, the National Law Journal named her one of the nation's 100 most powerful attorneys and as one of the nation's top 50 women lawyers.
Miers also has been involved in local and statewide politics in Texas.
* In 1989, she was elected to a two-year term as an at-large candidate on the Dallas City Council. She chose not to run for re-election when her term expired.
* Miers also served as general counsel for the transition team of Governor-elect George W. Bush in 1994.
* From 1995 until 2000, Miers served as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission, a voluntary public service position she undertook while maintaining her legal practice and other responsibilities. When then-Governor Bush appointed Miers to a six-year term on the Texas Lottery Commission, it was mired in scandal, and she served as a driving force behind its cleanup.
Miers came to Washington, D.C., in 2001:
* She was appointed assistant to the president and staff secretary on Jan. 20, 2001.
* In 2003, Miers was promoted to assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff.
* Miers has served as counsel to the president since February 2005.

But does anyone notice some glaring omissions, experience, perhaps, related to actually sitting on a bench? Have I misread her biography? Oh, I must have. Surely, if a person is going to rest on the seat of our land’s highest court, a seat which will oversee, contemplate, dictate the laws of our land, she will have garnered a hefty bit of knowledge due to hands-on judicial practice during her career, right? Am I just billowing hot air here? Am I insane for thinking it would be mega giga sweet to have experienced, worthy persons take the paramount judgeship? Folks who know what it feels like to put on that robe, knock that gavel, make crucial decisions that will affect the lives of their countrymen?

Sure, nothing new here, same old, same old as regards to placing unqualified, mysterious beings in critical governmental positions, but….

I don’t know. Could be that I’m just a raving lunatic, but I’m really, really starting to feel more like an outsider in my own country, like I don’t belong here, like I have no friends, only acquaintances, shadow acquaintances at that, slips of two-dimensional promise-makers and dark phantoms who rule from behind their cloaks of secrecy with Biblical vengeance in mind. There are no checks and balances, no “others” to demand democracy, ensure basic civil liberties stay intact, slap down imperialist idiom with a resounding, effective “enough already!” And you know why that is? Because they’re not allowed into the weekly poker games, despite their royal flushes -- no, because of the potentially winning cards they carry in their hands; we may have elected those card-carrying senators and representatives, but there’s not much they can do when all four doors of the Oval Office are slammed shut on their faces, or worse, when some of the highest-ranking players resort to treason and corruption in order to instill fear in those whose rightful chips were stolen away from the get-go...

We all are being cheated, and we’re not even allowed at the round table by way of surrogates we elected. The frontrunners are decided not by skill or real love of the game, but by nepotism, intimidation and segregation. Ladies and gentlemen, I fold.

posted by Ms. Lori @ 11:03 AM