| Now the curtain has been
pulled aside, and behind it sits Harriet Miers, a
living, breathing incarnation of the real qualifications
for a place at the frontline of Bush’s mission:
a) unquestioning loyalty, to both Bush and his agenda,
and b) the ability to argue, with a straight face,
that decisions in favor of rich, powerful, evangelical,
or anti-choice constituencies are merely the result
of enacting the law as written — and/or a necessary
first strike in the war against terror.
Optional but highly desirable extras for candidates
may also include close ties to the energy industry
(preferably oil), past experience in a previous Republican
administration (preferably his dad’s, or one
located in Texas), an Oedipal attachment to the president,
and the ability to mix professed religiosity with
sacrilegious behavior that would make Jesus weep and
Moses smash tablets. Bonus points are routinely awarded
for those talented individuals who can put a brown,
black, golden, female, queer, or Jewish face on racist,
elitist, misogynist, homophobic, and/or anti-semitic
policy decisions.
But this is not the way that Bush’s acolytes
like to think of themselves. For years they have promoted
the myth that you had to be special to shill for this
administration and its elitist, self-serving, hypocritical,
and misguided policies. That’s why conservatives
prefer their cronies and ideologues disguised a
la John
Roberts complete with a Harvard pedigree, prestigious
professional stints under Rehnquist and Reagan, a
Kennedy-esque wife and kids, and Clinton-esque skills
re: evasion and legal hair-splitting. So that Roberts’
efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, roll back
affirmative action, allow the execution of minors
and the mentally retarded, criminalize queer sex,
and entirely dismantle church/state separation will
seem — you know — classy.
What a blow to learn that — so far as the president
is concerned — any acquiescent, born-again former
Texas state former lottery commissioner turned White
House Counsel with a history of work on behalf of
the oil industry and a boner for the Bush family and
against Roe v. Wade will do.
It may be enough for Focus on the Family’s
founder, James Dobson, to have Karl Rove’s assurances
that Miers “is an Evangelical Christian, that
she is from a very conservative church...and that
she had been a member of the Texas Right to Life.”
But Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, Anne Coulter,
George Will, William Kristol, and Charles Krauthammer
are still frothing at the mouth about Miers. Don’t
believe any of the hokum about how they’re concerned
that she might not turn out to be a “true conservative.”
There’s nothing since her conversion from Roman
Catholic Democrat to Evangelical Christian Republican
to indicate that she’ll vote any differently
from Scalia.
The real source of their anger — besides Miers’
unflattering reflection — is
Bush’s reversal of the decision-making process.
Until now, he’s trusted them. His administration’s
policies have been dictated by their American
Enterprise Institute, where Kenneth Lay of Enron
served as a trustee and Lynne Cheney currently enjoys
a post as a “Senior Fellow.” The
Heritage Foundation (founded by Weyrich along
with his buddy Joseph Coors) has been the source of
much of Bush’s domestic and foreign policy,
including tax cuts for the wealthy, the de-funding
of the social safety net created by FDR’s New
Deal, and the invasion of Iraq.
The
Cato Institute, whose alums fill half a dozen
positions in the Bush administration, has led the
right-wing's push for privatization of government
services, including Social Security. And the Federalist
Society has served as a defacto headhunting firm
for Bush’s cabinet and bench. (Federalist Society
member Ted Olsen, Bush’s Solicitor General,
argued Bush v. Gore in front of Federalist Society
member Chief Justice Rehnquist, while fellow member
Scalia looked on.)
Now Bush has committed the unpardonable sin of trying
to act like a leader instead of just talking like
one. The results are equally bad, and the people who
have grown to think of themselves as the real leaders
of this country are having none of it. At Paul Weyrich’s
luncheon last week for 85 activists, RNC Chairman
Ken Mehlman and presidential aide Tim Goeglein faced
a hostile crowd. (Weyrich kicked things off by rejecting
Bush’s call to “trust him” in his
opening remarks.) At Grover Norquist’s legendary
weekly power meeting, White House advisor Ed Gillespie
and Mehlman “got
pummeled,” according to one observer. “I’ve
never seen anything like it.”
It’s not just the rage of the right’s
“intellectuals” that’s so tasty:
it’s watching them trot out the same rhetoric
they’ve scorned for years now to support their
case. All of a sudden, George Will is deriding Bush’s
“ability to make sophisticated judgments about
competing approaches to construing the Constitution,”
urging “exacting scrutiny of Harriet Miers,”
and inveighing against the dangers of “senatorial
deference." What ever happened to, “The
candidate deserves an up and down vote”?
As the years rolled by, Dorian Gray’s picture
became weighed down with the endless sins its subject
had committed. Who’s looking a little faded
around the edges now?
Nancy Goldstein’s next column will appear
on Raw Story on Thursday the 27th. She can be reached
at goldstein.nancy@gmail.com.
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