[Mb-civic] Miers: true believer, or Bush puppet? - Thomas Oliphant - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Miers: true believer, or Bush puppet?

By Thomas Oliphant, Globe Columnist  |  October 6, 2005

WASHINGTON
HARRIET MIERS confronted the trick question head-on last year. Just how 
did the president play horseshoes with his dog?

''The president throws the horseshoes to Barney, and Barney runs after 
them," she said matter-of-factly. ''The metal horseshoes are too heavy 
for Barney to lift, so he doesn't carry them around.

''Instead he moves them around with his nose. He has pretty quickly 
learned how to get under the horseshoe enough to flip it over. As you 
know, the president loves horsing around with Barney."

A pal of mine from movement conservatism -- one of those committed souls 
horrified and disgusted that Bush nominated an unknown loyalist to the 
Supreme Court -- sent me that little gem from the White House website to 
illustrate what he considered a sample of her work. I quickly reminded 
him that was unfair, since Miers's explanation of presidential canine 
horseshoes had come after her service as the president's staff 
secretary, during her service as deputy chief of staff for policy, but 
before her service, for all of about nine months, as the White House 
counsel.

The question progressive senators should want to pursue once Miers 
appears before the Judiciary Committee is not how a man and a dog can 
play with horseshoes but whether Bush's counsel is capable of the 
independence that is a basic qualification for a justice. The 
conservative dismay over the appointment reflects more than simple 
snobbery and goes to the fact that she has left no footprints indicating 
a formed judicial mind, much less a formed movement conservative 
judicial mind.

The progressive skepticism about her reflects more than a suspicion of 
cronyism; it involves the extraordinary degree of her identity with the 
president.

Take Armstrong Williams -- please. A friend from the left alerted me to 
this example of Bush administration antiethics, and it could be a 
representative indication of Miers's devotion to her boss at the expense 
of independent, sound judgment.

When the conservative commentator's receipt of money, via the Education 
Department for activities in support of its flawed and underfunded No 
Child Left Behind program, was exposed, the Bushies went into full 
damage control. From Bush himself down to department officials, shock 
and horror were expressed, as was a vow not to pay for praise anymore.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/06/miers_true_believer_or_bush_puppet/
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