So Harriet Miers sucked (up) her way to the top:
“You are the best governor ever – deserving of great respect,” Harriet E. Miers wrote to George W. Bush days after his 51st birthday in July 1997. …
On March 25, on the letterhead of her Dallas law firm, Locke Purnell Rain Harrell, Ms. Miers wrote to thank him “for taking the time to visit in the office and on the plane back – cool!” …
In October 1997, Ms. Miers sent Mr. Bush a flowery greeting card in thanks for a letter that he had written on her behalf. In it, she said of his daughters: “Hopefully Jenna and Barbara recognize that their parents are ‘cool’ – as do the rest of us.”
That first one sounds like some Saddam lackey circa March 2003, and the last, as blogger Jonathan Last notes, is hopelessly out of touch for putting “cool” in quotes. At the risk of using Miers-esque hyperbole, this is one of the most baffling Court nominations ever. At least it’s set a standard for getting nominated in the Bush administration. In addition to money and loyalty, totalitarian-lite flattery will get you a job.
How about this, to get appointed director of the Office of Management & Budget? “Your budget is the leanest ever, Mr. President! It’s as slim and tasty as a Healthy Choice TV dinner! Mmm, I can just taste that budget in my mouth! What a perfect cut – the marbling in nondiscretionary spending is exquisite, yet the fat in the transportation bill doesn’t overwhelm! You’re the best commander in ‘chef’ ever!” And so on.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.