Just saw the first ad for Harriet Miers, President Bush's new nominee for the US Supreme Court. Within a couple of hours of the announcement, I found an ad up at the Reason magazine website for JusticeMiers.com, "a project of Progress for America."
"Progress for America Inc. (PFA) president Brian McCabe today praised the nomination of Harriet Miers to Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and officially launched the website"
And what is Progress for America, Inc.? From their website:
As a nonprofit corporation and exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, PFA promotes nonpartisan, conservative policies that improve the quality of life for the American people. During the 109th Congress, PFA will advance a conservative legislative agenda to reform Social Security, confirm President Bush's judicial nominees, overhaul the tax code and end lawsuit abuse by:*Building a nationwide grassroots advocacy organization
*Launching an advertising campaign on television & other venues
*Forcing the media to report the facts about President Bush's commonsense conservative agenda
*Setting the record straight about liberal groups like Moveon.org, AARP & the unions
Progress For America, Inc also sponsors the site "Up or Down Vote."
Hard telling what kind of justice Harriett Miers will turn out to be. We'll all be going over her record with a fine tooth comb looking for clues, but she's never been a judge at all, and is not much of a public figure. The most obvious tentpoles of her career are that she was once president of the Texas Bar Association, and that she's been counsel to the president.
Her apparent minimal paper trail doesn't necessarily make her suspect, but we've got little to go on in judging her currently other than that President Bush likes her. On first glance at least, she appears even considerably more of an undefinable "stealth" candidate than Chief Justice Roberts.
As to reporting the facts, then, the website has one main item, a useful if partisan resume that gives a good basic timeline for her.
PFA has her website active, with the basic structure for reaching through to write your senator in support, and news updates, video and audio links etc.
We obviously can't tell on October 3, 2005 how the Miers nomination will play out, but if the early bird gets the worm, her backers are off to a good start.
Article comments
1 - The Fifth Dentist
I'm a little surprised he pased over Brownie considering that the man needs a job and has a law degree from the prestigious Oklahoma City Law School, Bar and Grill. But I guess it's no SMU.
2 - Michael J. West
The ambiguities you mention kinda make her a fitting replacement for O'Connor, don't they?
3 - RJ
Bush has disappointed me with this pick.
No one knows for sure whether Miers is a liberal or a conservative. And she has almost no paper trail.
And she's never been a judge.
And Harry Reid supports her.
Sounds like bad news to me...
4 - Michael J. West
Wonder if it's fair for any senators to ask her how she feels about Voting Representation for Washington, D.C.
Not that they ever would, of course.
5 - Al Barger
In what way would her views on DC be a judicial issue, exactly?
6 - Michael J. West
In what way would her views on DC be a judicial issue, exactly?
Well, more of a constitutional issue, I suppose. There's pending legislation to give us a voting representative, but since we're not a state there's technically no constitutional provision to allow us one. So there's grounds for a challenge that could end up before SCOTUS.
7 - Al Barger
Gee, but that sounds like exactly the kind of thing likely to come before the court which she probably legitimately should not be talking about.
8 - RogerMDillion
"if the early bird gets the worm, her backers are off to a good start."
Looks like they choked on the worm
9 - Al Barger
Give you that one, Roger. But you can't really blame the backers- they tried. The boss just gave them an absolutely unsaleable product.