I think Harriet is Eminently Qualified

[Ravenseye]

Stephen Breyer - 14 Years Experience as an Appellate Judge
Ruth Bader Ginsberg - 13 Years Experience as an Appellate Judge.
David Souter - 13 Years Experience : 5 Years in NH Superior Court, 7 years on the NH Supreme Court, 1 Year as an Appellate Judge
Anthony Kennedy - 12 years Experience as an Appellate Judge
Sandra Day O'Connor - 6 Years Experience : 4 Years as an elected Judge, 2 years on the Arizona Court of Appeals
John Paul Stevens - 5 Years Experience as an Appellate Judge
Antonin Scalia - 4 Years Experinence as an Appellate Judge
John Roberts - 2 Years Experience as an Appellate Judge
Clarence Thomas - 1 Year Experience as an Appellate Judge

Harriett Miers - 0 Experience as a Judge

Talk about rewarding crony's....what did this lady do for the Bush family to deserve this?

[jn2375]

1. a lot

[SteppingRazor]

2. Hmm... I don't know enough about Roberts, but...

Is it just me, or are the most crazy ones the ones with the least experience?

[Ravenseye]

4. Interesting eh?

Think about which ones you respect, liberal moderate and conservative, and then look at that list and see where they are on the experience level.

Fairly interesting, I agree.

[FormerDittoHead]

19. With respect to Roberts and to put Miers in perspective...

Before a judge, Roberts was a lawyer who tried cases in front of the Supreme Court many times for over 10 years, not something most lawyers do even once in their career.

Roberts scared(s) me but he will be replacing a conservative.

Miers is totally unqualified and must be stopped.

[tanyev]

3. An awful lot.

Harriet Miers was the fixer for Bush's National Guard records purge
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4955866

[Ravenseye]

5. Christ I was half joking

But seriously? She's the one that purged his records?

Oh. My. God.

[tanyev]

15. Governor Bush’s Well-Appointed Texas Officials

Lottery Commission
Upon taking office in 1995, Gov. Bush appointed his personal lawyer, Harriet Miers ($22,000 to Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns), to watch over the Texas Lottery Commission. The Texas Lottery is intertwined with ex-Texas Speaker and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes. In 1991, Barnes lobbied to create the Texas Lottery. The next year Barnes became arguably the highest paid lobbyist in Texas history. Gtech—the only contractor that the Texas Lottery has ever had—agreed to pay Barnes annual fees of up to $3.2 million. Barnes kicked back one-third of this money to a Gtech executive who was convicted in 1996 of taking New Jersey lobby kickbacks. In a further revolving-door scandal, Gtech hired top Bush aides Cliff Johnson and Reggie Bashur as lobbyists as they exited the Governor’s Office. In the wake of these scandals, Gtech paid $23 million to buy Barnes out of his lobby contract and the Lottery Commissioners rebid Gtech’s contract. Gtech simply won the contract again. Gtech paid $300,000 in 1999 to settle a lawsuit by ex-Texas Lottery Director Lawrence Littwin. Littwin alleged that the commissioners fired him for digging into Gtech’s political influence. He said the company controlled the commissioners because of what Barnes knew about Bush’s military service. As House Speaker in 1968, Barnes wrote a letter to help get young George W. Bush a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard—far from the Vietnamese rice paddies.
http://www.tpj.org/docs/2000/10/reports/appointments/boards.html

[DaveinMD]

6. Just remember

Earl Warren. Just saying.

[Ravenseye]

10. I'm not equating experience with being a good justice

I'm just saying...Really? There is nobody more qualified? Nobody with experience? Nobody who isn't tied to purging his National Guard records?

[MildyRules]

28. Fortas and Powell also had no experience as judges

[Ravenseye]

29. Yeah but noone else?

This is a woman who has been dedicated to the Bush family since before he was Governor of Texas, who helped purge his national guard records among other things apparently, gave over 20k to his campaigns, and has worked for the past 5 years advising him.

That's not the right kind of experience we need up there. Roberts was far better than this. This isn't even a judge, this is just a smarmy lawyer who lies lies lies, and is a Bush Crony.

You're doing a heck of a job Brownie.

[Zynx]

12. I'm trying to remember, but I think Hugo Black had little experience

as well.

[Fridays Child]

7. It's extraordinary cronyism.

[Ravenseye]

16. I might be in the ruse camp

I'm thinking now...

1) She's a Bush-bot (loyal, cleared his records, proved her loyalty)
2) She has no experience

So she's there either

a) Because they really are that stupid. They're purely rewarding someone and it's cronyism at it's worst.

b) They put her up to be attacked, primarily for lack of experience. Then after a bit they'll put up some conservative judge with a decade of experience at least and then say "See you can't complain about him because he HAS experience, or are you just always complaining"

A Bait and Switch.

[Vanje]

8. Apparemtly she came up with some 27K to buy access to GWB

in the Texas governors mansion.

[tabasco]

9. The Democrats should come out firing with both barrels.

Just another unqualified toadie!

Approve or disapprove, I want the Democrats to drive home the point that Bush appoints unqualified ass-kissers to the highest positions of government.

[Ravenseye]

18. That should definately be the angle

Not so much the lack of experience, which I feel might be a bait and switch tactic, but one of cronyism. A "See, he just doesn't get it, the Republicans just keep doing it, even after they've killed thousands of americans because of it, they keep doing it!"

[Walt Starr]

11. She helped them hide the bodies

She covered up his AWOL stint and his drug convictions.

[liveoaktx]

13. Pick me! ME!!! I ALSO have no experience as a judge... oh, I forgot

I think Bush sucks. That lets me out.

[rwenos]

14. Before Y'all Go For the Throat . . .

Consider the judges nominated to the Court in the 20th Century with NO experience as judges:

1. Louis Brandeis (by Wilson)
2. Earl Warren (by Eisenhower)
3. Lewis Powell (by Nixon, although a Democrat)

We can thus generalize that we cannot generalize about justices chosen from private practice, rather than from a lower court.

On the other hand, I want to know a BUNCH about this lady before I jump off the fence about her nomination.

[wtmusic]

21. I'll go for the throat on the basis

she worked as WH staff. No way can we let this one through.

[rwenos]

22. OK, but not just because she's not a judge.

There'll be plenty of time during the confirmation hearings to find other reasons.

[Ravenseye]

25. Yeah you're right.

Earl Warren's Experience:

Graduated from Berkley
1915-1920 Private Law Firms
1920-1925 San Francisco County Prosecutor
1925-1939 District Attorney of Alameda County
1939-1942 Attorney General of California
1942-1953 Governor of California

Harriet Miers' Experience:

Graduated SMU
1970-1972 Law Clerk
1972-2000 Private Practice
2001-2005 Deputy Chief of Staff
2005-Now Counsel to the President

Yeah those are comparable.

[Straight Shooter]

30. Was America living in such a corporatist society then?

Did we have the world's most elitist privileged self-serving out-of-touch ignoramus in the White House then? Did we have something as heinous as the Patriot Act then? Or an Oaf of Office who might likely end up having his future decided by the same Supreme Court lackeys he's choosing?

My head isn't exploding, it's finally just caving in from the pressure of having to deal with all this BS that gets heaped on us.

[Norquist Nemesis]

17. Well, she kept Bush out of legal troubles for a number of years

She must be a really hard worker. :evilgrin:

Anyone who could keep Bush out of jail after all these years must be a genious! But it doesn't mean they are a competent judge for SC.

[ReadTomPaine]

20. Where does Rehnquist fit in? (Other than in his box under the ground)

[rwenos]

23. His Copy of the Constitution Had No Fourth Amendment.

And he didn't believe there should be a federal government, except for the military and the Post Office.

[Ravenseye]

27. Rehnquist's Experience

1952 Graduated Stanford Law School
1951-1952 Law Clerk
1953-1969 Private Practice
1969-1971 Assistant U.S. Attorney General

Not that much better than Meier's. Yuck.

[ReadTomPaine]

32. I'd heard he was the main precedent for selecting nominees with no..

real experience. Seems it's true.

[Lancer]

24. Remember Shrub yelling, "don't forget Poland!" in the debates last year?

He could have said about Miers, "don't forget she served one term on the Dallas City Council!" today. Clearly, her record speaks for itself. :eyes:

:sigh:

[OneBlueSky]

26. shouldn't a SC justics know SOMETHING about . . .

constitutional law? . . . I mean, my three undergrad courses on the subject probably trump her preparation for the Court . . .

[MemphisTiger]

31. It's like he's too dumb to learn from the brownie incident

what a moron.

:wtf: