Molly Ivans: Bush nominee Miers is Texas conservative, fundamentalist Chri

[fencesitter]

Ooohhh. Now I see.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19701

AUSTIN, Texas -- Uh-oh. Now we are in trouble. Doesn't take much to read the tea leaves on the Harriet Miers nomination. First, it's Bunker Time at the White House. Miers' chief qualification for this job is loyalty to George W. Bush and the team. What the nomination means in larger terms for both law and society is the fifth vote on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

<snip>

She is enrolled in the Valley View Christian Church of Dallas, which she attended for at least 20 years before moving to Washington five years ago. Among that church's other members is Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, considered second only to Priscilla Owen as that court's most adamant anti-abortion judge.

[MADem]

1. Molly is usually right on the money

I take her view of this woman rather seriously....

[etherealtruth]

2. I love Molly Ivins

[NNadir]

21. Me too. Bush is certainly very much the same as Al Gore, as Ms Ivins

so helpfully informed us 5 short years ago.

[CAcyclist]

23. Remind me of the details

because I don't remember that. I do remember her book about Bush and her efforts to warn us about him.

[etherealtruth]

26. I don't recall her portraying Al Gore ...

negatively ... I could have blocked it (?) as I am a major "fan"/supporter of Gore as well.

[DrZeeLit]

27. Yes! Molly Ivins is my hero -- and a terrific writer!

She doesn't suffer fools gladly, has her facts at the ready, and won't stand down for any reason. She's a straight shooter.

And as far as being a member of the media -- she's never flinched in taking on any administration.

You go, Molly!

[napi21]

3. I trust Molly's opinion too, but membership in a church isn't enough

to determine this woman's views on the law.

I've been a roman catholic my whole life (62 yrs). I would never consider having an abortion, but I want the state OUT of the decision! I don't think Row should be overturned!

[phantom power]

9. Maybe. But combine that with the fact that...

She's a self-proclaimed "Bush loyalist", with no bench experience, and it adds up to no good. Independent of ideology issues, she's simply got enormous conflict of interest with respect to the current Administration. And really, she's egregiously unqualified, in terms of experience.

Also, Fundy Protestant sects are a different animal than the Catholic church. The Catholic church seems to respect of church/state separation in a way that these baptist/protestant sects definitely don't.

[fencesitter]

10. True, but she goes on to say this..

"Miers, like Bush himself, is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism. What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone."

I wish it weren't so. Maybe Molly's wrong, but she's usually spot on. If she's wrong, she'll admit it promptly.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. Incredible first hand account. How can we get this article to

every senate democat? Emailing is out, they don't read them and their email sites are so restrictive.

This is urgent! She will be on a mission to overturn Roe !

Wish I had a fax machine !

Maybe the DU Activist corps??

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. kick

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. kick due to urgency

[xxqqqzme]

7. you have 2 wonder out of ALL

the judges, sitting on all the federal circiut; state - civil & criminal; county courts in this country...how is it that this woman is more qualified to sit on the supremes and she has NO judicial experience! Her ONE overwhelming qualification seems to be that she is loyal to BFEE.

[Vinnie From Indy]

11. What must those conservative women on the bench think about

all their hard work being passed over in favor of Miers? I guess Cheney had a terrible time convincing Junior that he couldn't nominate his dog Barney.

[Kolesar]

8. Molly Ivins does great research

"Miers' church states on its website that it believes in biblical inerrancy, full immersion baptism, original sin and salvation dependent entirely upon accepting Jesus Christ. Everyone else is going to hell. "

[ChowChowChow]

12. MOLLY IS THE BEST

I love her.

[enough]

13. kick

[Rowdyboy]

14. I was feeling good today, then I just had to go and read this article....

Now I'll be depressed for the rest of the day. God bless Molly Ivins. At least she lets us know exactly what we can expect.

[firefox]

15. Destined for greatest. Nomination #3

I heart the writings of Molly Ivins. She always has that light-hearted approach but she gets her facts in. She has a certain authority over this nominatee just as she does with Bugman Delay, being from Texas and all.

This needs to make the Greatest Page. Nominated.

[crispini]

16. Molly Ivins knows Texas politics like nobody else does.

And if Molly thinks that Miers will be the vote to overturn Roe, Molly is probably right.

Kicked and nominated.

[spooky3]

28. well said

[katty]

17. Molly knows TX and bush--Mier's another adoring pitbull for bush

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. Randi Rhodes is so funny. She just said that Miers' only

qualifications is that she watched Judge Judy on TV. Who, by the way, is more qualified than Miers.

This article is very scary.

[Marie26]

19. Judge Nathan Hecht & Miers also DATED

Judge Hecht & Miers also apparantly dated & are long-time friends. So... she goes to a conservative church, & dates one of the Texas Supreme Court's "most adamant anti-abortion judges." This isn't looking very good.

"She's not a back-slapper. She's very businesslike," says Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, who has dated Miers over the years and has known her since he first became a lawyer at Locke Purnell in 1975."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1102944936042

[Catfight]

20. We need not go any further, every democrat should say HELL no

Miers must GO, she is not SCOTUS material. She's never held a gavel in her hand and I don't want some right winged idiot dictating federal law. She'll bring back segregation and everything else bad in the past of American history. Can we get some progressives in office? NO more regressives.

[FourStarDemocrat]

22. "We believe..."

From the church's website:

We try not to be dogmatic about matters on which believers hold divergent views. Our core beliefs are centered in Christ and His message as supported by Scripture. More obscure doctrine, as well as controversial issues about which the Bible is silent, are left to believers to sort out on their own. On these issues we take no official/dogmatic position. What follows is a summary of what we believe:

We believe the Bible to be the only infallible, inspired, authoritative Word of God. As such it is our final authority for all matters of faith and Christian practice.( 2 Timothy 3:14-16 )


We believe that death seals the eternity of each person ( Hebrews 9:27 ). Those who are forgiven will spend eternity with God in heaven, those not forgiven will be eternally separated from God in hell .( John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Acts 17:31)

There's some more stuff on the page too.

http://www.vvcc.org/beliefsgo.asp

[Dudley_DUright]

24. Just as you can't tell the players without a program,

you can't tell the Bush cronies without Molly giving you the inside TX scoop.

[despairing optimist]

25. Notice how Molly opened with "Now we are in trouble."

Harriet Miers has been presented to the Democrats as a compromise, swing-voting candidate. Of course, *'s idea of swinging is probably tied to Miers's reported inability to make decisions as well as her blind, unfailing loyalty--both of which will probably lead to her being readily "swung" in John Roberts's (I call him Ozzie now, soon presiding over the Ozzie and Harriet court) direction.

Remember that Roberts won confirmation with 22 Democratic votes, a number of which from the most progressive senators. I thought a deal was in the works when that happened, and now that Harry Reid has beamed his approval of Harriet, I'm even more convinced that the fix is in.

Harriet is even more of an enigma than Ozzie and will be harder to stop. Molly Ivins sees that the GOP has laid another clever trap for the Democrats to fall into. Either way they lose. If they oppose the nomination, they risk the nuclear option if they can't convince a majority that Harriet represents an extraordinary, exceptional case that justifies a filibuster. But even if the filibuster succeeds, or if Democrats succeed in persuading enough Republicans to oppose her, * gets the upper hand once again. He will be free to nominate an obvious RW extremist and get the propaganda machine working full-tilt to steamroll that nomination. All this shows that it's good to be the king, however tainted his reign, and it's bad to be the minority party, however right its arguments. The fight is coming 15 months too soon, and both sides are holding on for dear life.

It isn't easy to thwart a sitting president once, but it gets even harder the second or third time around. Apparently * cut his deal with the minority leadership, and as with Roberts, enough Democrats will fall in line to move Harriet in with him. They will do this out of fear of the consequences if they don't. Things could be worse: Wish John Paul Stevens a healthy, long life with no retirement plans. He may indeed outlive the process of impartial judicial review.

[Kenergy]

29. Thanks for that post n/t