Former Bush speechwriter David Frum doesn’t mince words to conservative Bush loyalists who’ve gone after him for not supporting Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. On NRO he writes:
Some NRO readers have challenged me: Why should we trust you when you say that Miers is not qualified rather than trust the president when he says she is?
My answer is: Don’t trust me. Trust your own eyes. The woman is 60 years old, a lawyer for more than three decades. Can you see any instance in this long life and career where Miers ever took a risk on behalf of conservative principle? Can you see any indication of intellectual excellence? Did she ever do anything brave, anything that took backbone? Did anyone before this week ever describe her as oustanding in any way at all?
If the answers to these questions is No, as it is, then you have to ask yourself: Why is a Republican president bypassing so many dozens of superb legal conservatives to choose Harriet Miers for the highest court in the land?
I am not saying she is a Michael Brown. But I am saying she is being chosen for her next job in exactly the same way and for the same reasons that Michael Brown was chosen for FEMA. And that is not good enough for me. Is it good enough for you? Hugh Hewitt, you are a lawyer: Is it really good enough for you?
What we’re seeing here is a larger issue: whether people of BOTH parties have a duty to be independent thinkers and evaluate or support their parties and leaders on a case by case basis. Or should they fall into line when a new policy or position is taken by their party elites and on a dime discard their own core principles — all the time insisting that they’re not doing that at all.
Frum and other conservatives who are opposing Miers — whether you personally want this nomination or not — are sticking to their guns on long-held values. And they’re sounding an alarm that they don’t want a Republican party that is basically a huge patronage machine — but a party that stands for something larger — ideas. They may be ideas not everyone agrees with — but they are demanding that ideas and values trump the political cult of personality and personal power.
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.