DID YOU THINK I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT HARRIET ?

Although Fox "News" is undoubtedly the Völkischer Beobachter of this decade, the closest publication to this once-influential official Nazi Party newspaper is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, and more specifically the infamous WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial Page. One may think of the WALL STREET JOURNAL as a respectable mainstream, corporate daily with a lot of hard to read stock and bond prices. The Editorial Page in far from mainstream. It is a radically right neo-fascist cabal of dangerous imbeciles pushing a sickening agenda that was already outmoded when Louis XVI met his fate. And few of its writers are further off the cliff in fringe-land than John Fund.

On today's Editorial Page, Fund has a piece called "Did Christian conservatives receive assurances that Miers would oppose Roe v. Wade?" He concludes what is basically a conference call among Far Right politico-religionists with another swipe from the Right at Bush's ill-starred nomination of the hapless Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. "There are philosophical reasons for Republican senators to oppose Ms. Miers," warns Fund. "In 1987, the liberal onslaught on Robert Bork dramatically changed the confirmation process. The verb to bork" (which Fund defines as "meaning to savage a nominee and distort his record," rather than as "exposing a dangerous fascist ideologue hiding behind an ugly beard," which is what I though the verb means; it isn't in the dictionary), "entered the vocabulary, and many liberals now acknowledge that the anti-Bork campaign had bad consequences. It led to more stealth nominees, with presidents hoping their scant paper trail would shield them from attack," he claims, although I'm not certain which ones he means. Only Miers and Roberts have been actual post-Bork stealth candidates whereas Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer have had records. (Souter, whose conscience and ethics, unfortunately for the extreme right, didn't fit him into the kind of Stepford boxes they expect from judges, didn't turn out the way they and Bush I hoped he would.)

Anyway, Fund goes on to say that the current Bush "has now gone further in internalizing the lessons of the Bork debacle. Harriet Miers is a 'superstealth' nominee--a close friend of the president with no available paper trail who keeps her cards so close to her chest they might as well be plastered on it. If Ms. Miers is confirmed, it will reinforce the popular belief that the Supreme Court is more about political outcomes than the rule of law."

Probably to get Democrats to rally to the Far Right's hope to de-rail the nomination Fund-- as well as other propagandists in the splintered Right Wing Noise Machine-- is doing the best he can to scare progressives about her intentions. The conference call he brings up (Oct 3, the day Bush laid his bomb of a nomination on us), was hosted by neo-fascist fanatic and fake preacher Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association and brought together as dangerous a group of reactionary conspirators as anything since the birth of the Confederacy. Taking part were vicious and crazed wing-nuts like Gary Bauer, the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land, Tony Perkins, Paul Weyrich, Karl Rove-confidant James Dobson and other contemptible America-haters.
Fund claims he got his hands on voluminous notes from the call and also spoke to several participants, many of whom are, of course, close friends of his. "According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe."
The two judges were Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court and Judge Ed Kinkeade, a Dallas-based federal trial judge, both extremist reactionary ideologues who can always be depended on to rule against ordinary Americans in favor of the wealthy, powerful and privileged and, of course, always in favor of corporate special interests and always against inclusion and social harmony.

Fund reminds his readers that Dobson claims to have received the info he "shouldn't know" from Rove on Sunday, Oct. 2, the day before President Bush publicly announced the nomination, Rove assuring Dobson that Miers is an evangelical, and said that Justice Hecht (Miers' beard or boyfriend, depending who you believe) had helped her join an evangelical church in 1979 and could provide background on her. (Speak about stealth!! Look how that Rovean mind works and twists and turns!) The next day-- much to be embarrassed surprise-- Dobson was asked to introduce Hecht and Kinkeade on the conference call. Fund tells us that "according to the notes of the call, Mr. Dobson introduced them by saying, 'Karl Rove suggested that we talk with these gentlemen because they can confirm specific reasons why Harriet Miers might be a better candidate than some of us think.' What followed, according to the notes, was a free-wheeling discussion about many topics, including same-sex marriage. Justice Hecht said he had never discussed that issue with Ms. Miers. Then an unidentified voice asked the two men, 'Based on your personal knowledge of her, if she had the opportunity, do you believe she would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?'" Kinkeade jumped in first, "Absolutely." "I agree with that," said Justice Hecht. "I concur."

Fund claims the participants of the call considered the 2 judges' comments "an assurance, and at least one based his support for Ms. Miers on them." I wonder how many of these plotting loons are going to get subpoenaed.

Except for my unswerving devotion to the serially-proven absolute that Bush is a disaster and that everything he touches turns to shit, I have some mixed emotions about the Miers nomination. If it fails, we're not going to get someone better (other than in the unlikely scenario that Bush decides to take revenge on his radical right base). I'd bet we'll get someone even worse. At least Miers is old and lame and won't do much damage except consistently voting against our country's best interests. On the other hand, I like the idea that Bush picked someone from outside the approved pool of pre-selected candidates. Bush is an imbecile and he picked the wrong person but the idea... well I have to give him credit for it. Probably at the root of half the howling and braying you hear from the Inside-the-Beltway Establishment is that Bush did something this unexpected and... rad.

I was a president once too. I remember looking at some preening, strutting "acceptable" candidates
for an important position once. I went outside the pool with a pretty rad candidate and... wow, did I make some enemies! I was less stiff-necked and arrogant than Bush, though, and I was able to smooth things over, more or less, with all parties. Bush won't be able to do that and it's very much looking like this nomination is further breaking the Republican coalition apart at the seams. Fund claims no one in the Senate is looking forward to the hearings. I can imagine. But I sure am.