George Will is near vicious in his criticism of Bush, and the Miers nomination. Note this: "In addition, the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution. The forfeiture occurred March 27, 2002, when, in a private act betokening an uneasy conscience, he signed the McCain-Feingold law expanding government regulation of the timing, quantity and content of political speech." And this:
"It is important that Miers not be confirmed unless, in her 61st year, she suddenly and unexpectedly is found to have hitherto undisclosed interests and talents pertinent to the court’s role. Otherwise the sound principle of substantial deference to a president’s choice of judicial nominees will dissolve into a rationalization for senatorial abdication of the duty to hold presidents to some standards of seriousness that will prevent them from reducing the Supreme Court to a private plaything useful for fulfilling whims on behalf of friends."
"The wisdom of presumptive opposition to Miers’s confirmation flows from the fact that constitutional reasoning is a talent -- a skill acquired, as intellectual skills are, by years of practice sustained by intense interest. It is not usually acquired in the normal course of even a fine lawyer’s career. The burden is on Miers to demonstrate such talents, and on senators to compel such a demonstration or reject the nomination."
1. George is over the top here, "near vicious" is on the money.
2. Still the last paragraph of his quoted by Peter is right.
Will is almost always over the top and "near vicious!" To lefties like me, he has also provided a consistent, intelligent, articulate challenge. My estimate of his personal integrity has only increased in light of his willingness to "use his skills for good, instead of evil." (this last phrase is an homage to Don Adams, who left us recently, and who, to my knowledge, had nothing in common with George Will.)
Will was dead-on, particularly in his reference to McCain-Feingold. Bush stated the bill was unconstitutional and then signed it anyway, as if the President has no independent duty to uphold the Constitution. James Madison would weep if he saw this.