After the President announced Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court I posted an article titled, "Bush Picks Stealth Candidate for the Supreme Court" and expressed a certain disappointment. Although many pro-life bloggers shared my initial reaction others suggested conservatives calm down, even chill. In a highly lauded post, The American Thinker asserted that Bush is following an ingenious strategy and Miers has been underestimated. Similarly, Hugh Hewitt wrote,
President Bush has beaten the Dems like bongo drums for five plus years, and yet some conservatives are spooked by the fact that Harry Reid and Charles Schumer haven't taken to the Senate floor to announce a attempt at a filibuster. Shouldn't the presumption be --given the record of the past few election cycles-- that the president knows what he is doing?
Zanotti at the The Conservative Princess took issue with the term "Stealth".
... Lets just say, she's my girl. All the way. Certainly, before Monday, Harriet Miers was someone I looked up to, but today, she is someone that not only do I want to be, I am proud of being like.... Harriet and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to another very important issue. The life issue. In fact, we are both anti-choice extremists.And, in fact, there have been a number of sources that support the assertion that Miers is pro-life. Zanotti points to the Sun Herald report:
As political activists rush to mine Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' slender public record, a former campaign manager says she opposed abortion rights while running for Dallas City Council in 1989.The New York Times (HT Tim Ellsworth) has more:"She is on the extreme end of the anti-choice movement," said Lorlee Bartos, who managed Miers' first and only political campaign and said they discussed abortion once during the race.
"I think Harriet's belief was pretty strongly felt," Bartos said Monday. "I suspect she is of the same cloth as the president."
Religion appears to have influenced her views on certain subjects. In a discussion with her campaign manager in 1989, Ms. Miers said she had been in favor in her younger years of a woman's right to have an abortion, but her views evolved against abortion, influenced largely by her born-again religious beliefs, said Lorlee Bartos, a Democratic campaign consultant in Dallas who managed Ms. Miers's City Council campaign.This is encouraging. She also garnered the support of several national pro-life leaders including Jay Sekulow and James Dobson."She was someone whose view had shifted, and she explained that to me," Ms. Bartos said.
There are numerous blogs emphasizing Miers' evangelical track record and the New York Times has published a summary of her conversion. Again, I'm encouraged but not satisfied. Why? Matt at Stones Cry Out has two words for those who support Miers strictly on the basis of her evangelical beliefs: Jimmy Carter.
Yet, David Limbaugh captures my sentiments in a column that, after expressing a degree of disappointment, concludes,
But I would also be remiss if I didn't close with a confession. As I'm submitting this column, I'm hearing very good things about Ms. Miers from people who know her and whom I trust, like she's a strong, pro-life evangelical Christian, a conservative's conservative, an originalist and a very capable lawyer. If so, I will enthusiastically support her -- and the Left will go to war against her. We should welcome that fight.For more check out:
Cao's Blog - who looks at Miers' prior writings.
OhHowILoveJesus - My advice to the Conservative movement is to stop whining and start thinking.
Thanks for trackbacking to my post at Caosblog.
YOu have done a wonderful job of putting me at ease with this nomination. Great post.