Author: catnip

I’ve been thinking about what the Democrats strategy should be regarding the opposition to the Miers nomination for the Supreme Court besides just sitting back with a big bag of popcorn and watching the show as the Conservatives and Republicans engage in such a public display of defiance against President Bush. Frankly, I don’t know that the Democrats really need to do much of anything beyond what they’re already doing. Andrew Sullivan agrees and even goes further by suggesting the Dems should support her nomination; “They get to look bi-partisan, dignified: and their fairness will only drive the right further up the wall”. True, but I wouldn’t go that far.

The gasps of horror from the right today are the result of exclusive reporting by Drudge that reveals a transcript in which Miers said she would not join The Federalist Society because it is “politically charged”. In an effort to be fair and balanced, Drudge also reports on a speech that Miers gave in 2005 praising the Federalist Society. But wait – there’s more…

The first Drudge story also has Miers saying that she didn’t include the NAACP and the Black Chamber of Commerce in the realm of organizations she considered to be “politically charged”. Ouch. Not only that, Miers was once a member of the Democratic Progressive Voters League. Those facts should rapidly increase the number of conservative and Republican signators of the National Review’s online petition to have the nomination of Miers withdrawn. (There are 1,558 signatures at the time of this writing).

Conservatives are now examining how Miers ended up with the nomination in the first place by reviewing the White House vetting process which, as we all know by now, has been seriously flawed in the past. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal reminds readers of Bush’s training at Harvard Business School, where he ought to have learned proper vetting practices, pointing to the fact that Cheney’s House voting record and connection to Halliburton failed to be addressed by Bush during his vetting process. Maybe Bush was on National Guard duty the day of that vetting class.

The circular firing squad doesn’t end there…

First of all, for all of you breathlessly awaiting RAW STORY’s scoop on whether Cheney is being investigated by Fitzgerald, their article, Vice President’s role in outing of CIA agent under examination, sources close to prosecutor say, is now up.

All hat, no cattle? You decide.

What I find far more fascinating is this post by Digby who examines conservative blogger Robert George’s look at the timeline of the Plame outing and susbsequent events happening in the UK at the same time, including the “suicide” of David Kelly, “the source of BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan’s explosive report that the Blair government “sexed-up” its Iraq intelligence dossier.”

Ken Mehlman held a conference call Wednesday with right-wing bloggers with two goals in mind:

1. to engage the blogosphere more (like the Dems)
2. to push the Miers nomination for the SCOTUS

According to some right-wing bloggers who participated, the call was far from impressive. Professor Stephen Bainbridge, a corporate law professor at UCLA (according to his online bio), liveblogged the call and posted his transcript and thoughts online. Even after assurances from Mehlman, Bainbridge is still not convinced that Miers is the person for the job.

See excerpts from his transcript below…

The newswires and blogs are buzzing this evening with new tidbits of information about Fitzgerald’s investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name by “senior administration officials” in June/July 2003.

As SusanHu noted in her earlier diary, Judith Miller of the NYT is scheduled to appear before the grand jury for a second time on Wednesday. This appearance will allow Fitzgerald to question Miller about her previously undisclosed conversation on June 23, 2003 with Scooter Libby – which neither one of them, reportedly, brought to the attention of Fitzgerald before last week. Obstruction charges, anyone?

From the wires and the blogs, we have these new details tonite:

1) the possible release date of a NYT piece on Miller’s testimony
2) the content of Miller’s “newly discovered” notes
3) a push by several Democrats for a full report by Fitzgerald
4) speculation on the involvement of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG)

more…

In a statement that’s sure to piss off SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers’ critics on the left and the right, Laura Bush cries “sexism”.

Courtesy of WaPo:

Excuse me?