Miers, Bush, and Trust

I don't really like the direction some of the rhetoric is going on this Miers nomination. I'm hearing more and more people saying things like, "Conservatives are itching for a fight." That's not what really has most conservatives upset right now, the lack of a fight over the nomination (more on this later). What has most Conservatives upset is that Bush had plenty of qualified (more qualified) nominees at his disposal. Instead, he chooses Miers, an unkown quality to almost everyone but himself. That means we have to trust him. There is plenty of reason for us to do so, and 4 years ago, we probably would have. But our trust in the President has frayed. This Republican Congress and Presidency has come about because of conservativism, particularly the fiscal arm of conservativism. Conservatives have watched this Republican government, including the President, pay lip service to conservative philosophy but ultimately turn their noses up at it. So now President Bush asks us to trust him on this, but we aren't particularly willing to. Miers may be what he says she is. But she may not. He and Congress have pushed Conservatives' trust to the breaking point, and this is just too important an issue to risk trusting him on.

Now as for Conservatives itching for a fight. There is a difference between itching to fight and being prepared to do so, between fighting for fighting's sake and fighting for something. Conservatives were prepared to go to the wall for any of constructionists that have been discussed for weeks now because they see this debate to be of utmost importance for America. And it's not just about abortion, or gay marriage, or any of those other cultural red herrings the left likes to make this debate about. It is about ensuring that all three branches of government are in balance, powers checked. It is about ensuring that the judiciary does not become the despotic oligarchy that Jefferson envisioned it could become.

This is not about Miers, per se. She could very well become a fine judge. The problem is Bush had an opportunity to go with a candidate with known qualities, and he'd have had the full support of and defense from his base. They would have "gone to the mattresses" for his choice. He did not, though. He went with an unknown quantity from his close circle. For Conservatives, the odds in the lottery look better right now.