Debate, Don’t Disparage
Andrew Sullivan makes a case that some of the Miers critics, such as those at NRO, may be engaging in public bullying. He later posts an email from a reader who disagrees. I agree with this part of his response about not bullying the nominee:
Point taken. What I was trying to say is that it isn’t a nominee’s responsibility to withdraw. And she cannot really defend herself right now. It may well have been a bad decision, but she deserves a hearing. Bully the president, not her.
I think that what has disturbed me most in this “debate” over Miers (that often not much resembled a true debate) are the attacks on Miers personally. In addition to snide comments about her appearance, some have referred to her as a petty bureaucrat, mediocre, and intellectually inferior. Even if there are a thousand others (or a million for that matter) more qualified, she is an accomplished lawyer and has done much good in her sixty years. In a recent post, Polipundit pointed out that she was not really one of the top lawyers in the country, but on a list of the most influential and that she got there because she knew Bush. That may well be the case, but by any objective person’s standards the things she accomplished before meeting George W. Bush were impressive for a woman in the legal field, especially for her generation. The case can be made against Miers on the issues, there are valid points to be made, without trying to diminish the things she has accomplished in her lifetime.
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