Today, we watched the President cave to the extremist wing of his party and withdraw Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court. As Democrats, we should louldy voice our criticism of the President's leadership failure.
In Harriet Miers, the President had the opportunity to put forth a nominee that had bi-partisan support, a candidate both sides of the aisle were willing to support. The President even went so far as to respectfully ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's opinion on Miers' candidacy. Here was an opportunity for the President to fulfill his promise to end the partisanship in Washington.
More on the flip.
But this was not enough for the extremist, partisan wing of the Republican Party. No single person is perfect, but Harriet Miers was apparently not perfect enough - not perfectly extreme enough. Rather than form her own conservative opinions on issues like abortion or states rights or gay marriage, the extreme right wing insisted that she toe 100% to their point of view. Instead of a judge, they demanded an activist. This is not only completely unreasonable, its downright un-American.
In the end, Harriet Miers may not have been a good choice or may not have had the necessary experience or qualifications. In the end, in fulfilling its constitutional role, the Senate might have been correct to refuse to accept her nomination. But in order for that process to happen, there needed to be a full and complete hearing, a chance for the Senate to ask all the questions it needed to and to provide Harriet Miers with the opporunity to respond and to defend her record. After all that was said and done, if the Senate was dissatisfied with her as a nominee, the Senate could have rejected her.
Unfortunately, she never had that chance because the extreme right wing of the Republican party refused to accept anyone who wasn't a rubber stamp for their narrow-minded, out of the mainstream opinions. And the President, who prides himself on his steadfast leadership, and his ability to bringe two sides together, decided to cave instead.
If Harriet Miers, a conservative American, won't satisfy the extremist wing of the Republican party, what will? And why should the Democratic Party and the mainstream of America, go along?
(Ed. We are a frequent critic of "framing" as a salve to the deeper issue of a need for fresh policy ideas from liberals, but in this instance, its a tactic that is warranted as the Miers issue is the type of tacking with the wind issue framing is good for.)