I was at first perplexed by the Miers nomination. Then, the more I listened to the MSM and conservatives commenting, even on NLT), the more angry I became, becoming persuaded that this was a very bad move on Dubya’s part. I wrote a peevish paragraph on it, re-read it an hour later, but realized that my anger didn’t mean anything. I didn’t know why I was angry at Bush. Do I care that this person has no judicial experience? Of course not. I think it would be fine to appoint non-lawyers to the Court. Does anyone think that Walter Berns, for example, would be a bad appointment? Is it a problem that she works for Bush and he has known her for years and he likes her and trusts her? Of course not. So what’s the problem? Well, I just happen to know Alice Batchelder better, and I have heard from friends who know McConnell that he is really great. Well, Bush disagrees with me and my friends. O.K., we don’t know anything about her jurisprudence. How could we? Well, let’s give her the opportunity of explaining herself to the Judiciary Committee. Perhaps the conservative members of the Committee (e.g., Brownback and Coburn) can press her a bit and ask her to make her jurisprudence clear. Perhaps she can do it as well as Roberts did. Was Roberts’ testimony entirely satisfying? Bush has asked us to take this nomination on faith. So we should, for now. Then let her reason in front of the Judiciary Committee support both our faith and Bush’s.

By the way, it may be prudent to give her a copy of Heritage Guide to the Constitution, which just rolled of the press this week (the official publication date is November 3). It is a line-by-line analysis of the Constitution and is edited by Matthew Spalding and David Forte, with (I’m guessing) about a hundred different contributors; almost all of them wothies.