I don’t expect what I am about to say will be popular here, but I am interested in your reaction. Sun Tzu says:
“The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities…It is best to win without fighting.”
Perhaps it is time to entertain the possibility that, with Bush’ nomination of Hariet Miers, we have already won.
Look, for instance, at what former Frist aide and hyper-partisan culture warrior Manuel Miranda is saying:
Only minutes after Bush appeared at the White House Monday to announce the nomination, Manuel Miranda, a conservative strategist and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist issued a scathing statement: ‘The reaction of many conservatives today will be that the president has made possibly the most unqualified choice since Abe Fortas, who had been the president’s lawyer. The nomination of a nominee with no judicial record is a significant failure for the advisers that the White House gathered around it.’
While cautioning that ‘the president deserves the benefit of a doubt,’ Miranda added, “Something has been left unachieved by the Miers nomination. A Republican president has yet to erase the stigma of the (1987) Robert Bork hearings and the David Souter nomination. The nomination of Harriet Miers has not rid us of the repugnant situation that a jurist with a clear and distinguished record will not be nominated for higher service. The nomination did not rid us of the apprehension of stealth nominees.
That, of course, is only one example of the consternation on the right with this pick.
Bush and the Republicans are on the rocks as the midterms approach. It’s been openly speculated that both the Senate and the House could turn Dem in 2006. Can we entertain the possibility that Bush waived the white flag and surrendered in order to save the Republicans’ skin?
