A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

When the Harriett Miers was first announced, I noted that the common thread between her and John Roberts was that they were both likely to uphold the use of executive power in the War on Terror, having both served faithfully in the Executive branch. I'm currently reading Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, and I now note another (not unrelated) common thread: they both have strong ties to the Bush family. Roberts served as Deputy SG for Bush senior, and was nominated, though not confirmed to the D.C. Circuit by him. And he was of course later nominated and confirmed by W. Miers, of course, is infamously a Bush crony. The authors of Right Nation point out that loyalty and cronyism are Bush family trademarks. Indeed, W. made his fortune through oil company cronyism, and Bush Senior weeded out all Reaganites from the White House in favor of Bush hangers-ons (including apolitical family friends from Texas).

The Miers fiasco presents an opportunity for conservatives to put a stop to the Bushes' preference for cronyism and loyalty over principles, a particularly bad preference when it comes to the Supreme Court. The obvious successor to Ms. Miers, when her nomination is ulimately withdrawn or defeated, is Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the D.C. Circuit. He's clearly one of the leading judges in the country, with vast experience in antitrust law, admintrative law, constitutional law, and more. His marijuana incident is now more than twenty years in the past, and no longer seems disqualifying in any event, given subsequent revelations ("I didn't inhale" and whatnot).

Most important, Ginsburg (who is still only sixty) is not a Bush crony or loyalist, and can be counted on as a strong and independent voice on the Court. And conservatives would rally around: if he was good enough for Ronald Reagan, surely he's good enough for the Bush Adminstration.