The heart of the matter

It's finally happening: they're attacking each other in public. And for what? They have to be sweating bullets over Treasongate, even if they do call it just a lil' old technical perjury. But did it get them riled enough to go for blood? No.

Was it... losing Osama Bin Laden, not finding WMD's, faking the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein? ...Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, forged Niger documents, 51 ignored FAA warnings about Al Qaeda hijackings? ...school dropouts, intelligent design, fear of Avian flu, skyrocketing deficits, increased abortions, explosive government spending, ...even the tragic aftermath of Katrina? No. It was Harriet Miers.

I know these folks have been waiting biblical eons to claim their Total Victory of Righteous Dominion Over the Courts Forever, but still. All that fabled discipline, undone so fast? It's startling.

Mind you, I am not complaining. Listen:

Harriet Miers is an abominable writer. Harriet Miers has offended United States Senators. Harriet Miers is a broken promise to the social conservative movement. Harriet Miers has a wretched grasp of the very Constitution she will supposedly defend on the Supreme Court. All these things are irrelevant. Right now, she is to ascend to the highest court in the land because George W. Bush is comfortable with her.

Those are the words of Josh Trevino, a fiercely conservative and influential writer for the other side. He continues:

This personal-comfort-as-principle is not merely the measure of the President's men, but of his governance. It is the enshrinement of whim and gut feeling as analysis. It is the elevation of Kentucky windage to a faux science. It is the same phenomenon that expresses itself cruelly in Iraq, erratically in policy, and as farce in the judiciary. …

Neither Left nor Right, Democrat nor Republican may justly claim that Harriet Miers stands at the cusp of the Supreme Court by dint of any sense of responsibility, conscience, propriety or mission. How then do we explain her? How do we interpret the stupefying accident of history whereby we must consider this titanic mediocrity as an arbiter of our very Constitution?

The answer lies in the titanic mediocrity who leads our nation.

"The titanic mediocrity who leads our nation." Gaze at those words a moment and smile. Who cares what made them speak out, when they get to the heart of matter like this?

Hat tip to mcjoan and to this writer (link now broken).