Miers Withdraws

TODAY, OCTOBER 27, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to be an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court. So that’s over. The question is: What comes next? Or, to put it another way, what does the captain of a mutinous company do to stop the growling and scowls from his licentious soldiery?

The answer is obvious. Lead them into battle. And he should not just lead them into a fight but make it perfectly clear that he expects them to win.

So maybe, after the Miers debacle, President Bush will nominate a good solid, qualified conservative for the court, someone like Judge J. Michael Luttig or like Judge Michael W. McConnell.

Then he can say to the Miers opponents, or imply: ok, you guys, you wanted a conservative on the court. I’ve got one right here. Now, after all your whining and grumbling show me what you can do. And let me make something clear. There is a difference between trying and doing. We are not talking about fighting for the new nominee. We are talking about fighting and winning.

Will that approach work? It could. The Miers nomination has raised a huge dust cloud that has obscured the old Supreme Court battlefield. Ever since the election of Bush in 2000, liberals and conservatives have been lining up for a set-piece battle, with conservative hordes preparing to attack liberals in their Roe v. Wade citadel.

But now the story has changed. After the successful Roberts nomination and the Miers debacle the old set-piece battle is not longer on the cards. The next nomination battle will be different. How different? Well, we shall see.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

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Francis Fukuyama, Trust

Hugo on Genius

“Tear down theory, poetic systems… No more rules, no more models… Genius conjures up rather than learns… ” —Victor Hugo
César Graña, Bohemian versus Bourgeois

Education

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E. G. West, Education and the State

Faith & Purpose

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Conversion

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James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Postmodernism

A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ’merely relative’, is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.
Roger Scruton, Modern Philosophy

Faith and Politics

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Conservatism

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US Life in 1842

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Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

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