George Will gets InstaPunked

The 'sphere is abuzz with linked commentary to this George Will tongue-lashing of Bush's Harriet Miers nomination to the SCOTUS:

    It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's ``argument'' for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons.

     He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their prepresidential careers, and this president, particularly, is not disposed to such reflections.

     Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Miers' nomination resulted from the president's careful consultation with people capable of such judgments. If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers' name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists.

That's just to kick his column off... I believe the whole thing ought to be read, if only so that you can then thoroughly enjoy this fisking the InstaPunk unleashed on Mr. Will:

What a jackass. Honestly. Let's be clear what is being proposed here: that in order to preserve the Constitution, we must dispense with the Constitution and employ confirmation rules dreamed up by a twit in a snit. Who are we to consult for the purpose of identifying 100 people who are capable of making "sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution"? Let's take a wild guess. Would it be George Will? But he doesn't answer that question exactly. There's much too much showing off to do.

...

Well, by Mr. Will's own argument with respect to the Miers nomination -- remember what he started ranting about in the first place -- this outcome means that the President (if he thought McCain-Feingold was unconstitutional) was wrong, and the great intellectuals of the court were right. So what is George Will's beef? That he disagrees with the highly trained specialists of the court. Hmmmm.

Will was born in Champaign, Ill., and was educated at Trinity College in Hartford, and Oxford and Princeton universities. Prior to entering journalism, Will taught political philosophy at Michigan State University and the University of Toronto...

This is a quote from Will's Washington Post bio. Very nice education. Very impressive. One slight problem, though. No sign of a law degree or "years of practice sustained by intense interest" in constitutional reasoning.

There's plenty of room to criticize George Bush for failing to veto McCain-Feingold, but it's no more than pompous rhetoric to declare that the President has "forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution." Particularly in light of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold it AND the astonishing conclusion reached by George Will  that the Senate somehow merits the trust he no longer feels for the President. His hopes for the senate are lofty indeed...

The entire post is well worth the time it'll take to read (not to mention the accompanying gif).  And you'll have been exposed to that which is dividing conservatives in big ways these days.  All in one fell swoop.

So go and read. It'll be worth it.

To quote Dick Cheney, "Just trust me."

UPDATE: Greg Wallace is taking a break from working (far too hard perhaps) to bring us relevant links to folks who are making lots of sense about all of this.  Check him out.  Again, trust me.

Comments

[greg]

Thanks for the link, amigo.

American Spectator's blog has hitting home runs off of George Will all day, but nothing better than this four-bagger:
http://www.spectator.org/blogger_comments.asp?BlogID=192

The problem with writing columns such as this is sooner or later he's going to have to take it back.

[Zossima]

Ah, the joys of watching the conservative in-fighting begin. Bush is in decline and the so-called "loyalists" are beginning to turn.

Well, George Will may not be a lawyer, but the spanking fantasy girl of conservatives, your sweetheart and mine, Ann Coulter is, and she is none too happy with this nomination.

I have to admit being taken aback by this nomination. I honestly expected (and think it would be great strategy) Bush to appoint someone who would clearly challenge the Democrats to filibuster. The Democrats are so vulnerable in this area. If Bush can pass Miers by his own party, the Dems are going to vote her right in.