Could the Miers nomination/withdrawal have anything to do with sexism?

[Maddy McCall]

This thought just hit me...so please hear me out and allow me to articulate what I'm pondering.

Could the president have nominated an unqualified woman to the USSC because he really didn't want to nominate a woman (qualified or not) at all?

With the resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor, the president felt pressure from women voters and women's organizations to fill O'Connor's seat with another woman. All along, he really had not wanted to nominate a woman, instead hoping that he could nominate a man to the position.

So he nominated Miers, knowing that conservatives and liberals alike would raise so much hell about the nomination, because she is completely unqualified. Knowing that the criticisms against Miers would be especially cruel and demeaning, he knew in advance that Miers couldn't hold up under the pressure.

When Miers eventually pulled out from her nomination, the president could then say to his critics that he had really TRIED to put a woman in the seat, but the American public wouldn't have it, so he is now forced to put a man in the seat.

Someone like Gonzales. Someone he had planned to nominate all along. Someone who is not a woman.

Well, that's what I've been thinking about. Does this make any sense to you all?

[Montauk6]

1. Nah, because there are PLENTY of female judicial scholars out there.

I'm wondering if Miers simply caught the equivalent of Last-Minute-Shopper's Anxiety as Fitzmas Day approaches.

[tanyev]

2. It makes sense, but I think you're giving him too much credit.

I think he nominated yet another one of the freakishly loyal sycophants he has surrounded himself with and was truly astonished that the religious nuts didn't appreciate his choice.

[Kagemusha]

6. The evidence certainly supports this conclusion.

I mean I've read reports saying exactly that sourced to WH insiders.

The thing is, Specter started rustling the bushes about Miers being a biased justice who couldn't separate her own involvement in executive power issues from the judicial position... a death blow, considering all the rest of it. Bush's whining over executive privilege is just cover now.

[OneForLuck]

3. I can't give him that much credit!

And while I think it's a valid Rovian plan - I think he still has to put up another woman. With everything in his administration falling apart he can't afford to open himself up for attack by putting up Gonzales either. But I can't wait to see how it plays out!! Then again.. maybe I'm giving them too much credit!

[OneForLuck]

4. I can't give him that much credit!

And while I think it's a valid Rovian plan - I think he still has to put up another woman. With everything in his administration falling apart he can't afford to open himself up for attack by putting up Gonzales either. But I can't wait to see how it plays out!! Then again.. maybe I'm giving them too much credit!

[Botany]

5. For me no

3 things:
She had never been a judge
She had never argued a case in front of the SCOTUS
Very limited experience w/ cases on a Federal level

[Maddy McCall]

7. All three things point to suspicion as to why she was nominated...

in the first place.

Indeed, the fact that he nominated a woman with those three attributes boggles the mind, and the sexist aspect of it has weighed on my mind.

As a woman, it pisses me off to no end that he picked HER when there are truly qualified women out there.

[Botany]

20. I think her nomination had more to do w/ bush being lazy.

It would take time & work to go over the last of qualified
candidates bush is flat not up to that.

Just like when he gave Cheney the job to look for a Veep and
Cheney came up with himself.

Meirs seems to be just the same ..... wasn't it her job to
look for somebody to nominate?

bush has a basic and systemic intellectual laziness i.e.
before the 3 weeks before the Iraqi war he did not know about
Shi ites, Sunnis, and Kurds.

He was young & rich with no real job but he never traveled overseas
until the age of 31 ...... we are paying the price for his lack of
understanding now.

sorry to rant

[walldude]

16. You forgot one

She thinks Shrub is the most brilliant man she ever met.. uh.. can you say poor judgement?

[etherealtruth]

22. and/or delusional n/t

[LynneSin]

8. The fact that Poppy nominated Thomas to replace Marshell shows...

...how much the regime plays the sex/race card.

[sweetladybug]

9. Maddy, I think that's what his intentions were from the beginning. He is

a BIG TIME manipulator

[Demit]

10. Can you speculate on why he wouldn't want a woman? I'm curious.

I mean, doesn't his desire for an idealogue trump everything? And as someone noted upthread, there are plenty of (well, two at least) female idealogues he's been fast-tracking in the federal judiciary. What would be the reason he, or whoever is really running him, wouldn't want to nominate a woman to the SC?

[Kagemusha]

11. Well Democratic opposition was very tepid.

It's Republicans he had the big problem with here. So the fact that his choice caused secondary problems doesn't mean that she didn't get at least some brownie points for absence of a Y chromosome on Capitol Hill.

I bet it's that he sees no legal giants among the available women so if no one's a giant, he picked the midget closest to his heart and the shine on his boots. That, obviously, is part of what ticks the conservative movement off here.

[Maddy McCall]

13. Yes, that's what's perplexing to me.

I do know that his administration gives lip service to W being "for women," and he has a woman secretary of state.

However, during his time in office, the Violence Against Women Act was dismantled, social programs and policies that affect women have been decimated, among other women-unfriendly actions.

Like you said, there are several women he has appointed to the federal judiciary who he could have nominated. And more than likely, they would have been confirmed.

Instead, he chose a woman he KNEW would not hold up to scrutiny, when he could have chosen one of several who would have sailed through confirmation.

That's what's telling, to me. Why choose a totally unqualified woman instead of a qualified woman?

Maybe it looks like cronyism, but there just seems to be a better reason for why he did this. I guess we will have a better idea IF he nominates Gonzales.

[Kagemusha]

17. I'm not sure he knew she wouldn't hold up.

Because Bush is arrogant and the longer he's in power, the more he thinks that the good things that have happened to him are the result of his own brilliance and not that of his advisors, so he trusts his own judgment and instincts over reason.

A former corporal from Germany had similar issues once he rose to national leadership.

[expatriot]

12. The Miers debacle no way no how was intentional - look at what it did to

the conservative movement... i mean for god sakes we had a conservative organization putting in a 250K ad buy AGAINST a Bush nominee. Huge divisions within the activists of the GOP at a very hard time with Iraq, plame gate, etc. Way too many political costs for the pay off.

[Maddy McCall]

15. I hope you are right...

and I hope reports that he's really angry with his conservative constituents is true, too.

Maybe, then, he will strike back at his constituents by nominating a moderate. But I won't hold my breath.

[expatriot]

23. he is going to go hard right to suck up to them.... he can't afford to

lose them... the social conservatives are the orc armies of the Republican Party.

so, yes he is going to nominate an uber conservative but it was not all an intentioal plan.

It is interesting to see the Miers nomination as a critical departure from the classic Rovian strategy of pandering to the social conservatives. With all the political misteps of this administration as of late, I wonder how long Rove has been without his former influecne in the WH.

[Divernan]

14. Universities have done this re hiring women academics.

My ex was on a dept. committee at Univ. of Pittsburgh. When there was an opening to hire for a tenure stream faculty position, the devil was in the details of who was invited for interviews. The top female candidates were carefully excluded. Sure there may have been an equal number of men and women interviewed by the hiring committee, but the men came from the top tier of universities - the Ivies and the other top-ranked universities like UVA, Chicago, etc. These men had done their thesis on the cutting edge topics of their field. They were published in the prestige journals. The women came from second or third level state schools, and all had focused their thesis on family or feminist issues. No comparable publications. The white male faculty/tenured committee members privately bemoaned the "fact" that these women were "intellectual embarassments", and it was too bad there were no competent women Ph.D.s, because of course they would really like to hire some women, but of course they couldn't lower their standards. The same policy was applied to black/minority candidates. They might be hired as instructors, but no way were they getting a shot at tenure. In fact, there were equally impressive women & minority grads from the Ivies, UVA, Chicago, etc. They just weren't invited to interview.

I researched AT&T back in the late 70's re govt. orders to them to promote women and minorities in the first three levels of management. AT&T would pick the nubile 20-something blonde females, ignoring the extremely experienced & knowledgeable, long-time women employees. Of course the young women were lousy managers, and the men could bemoan the "fact" that the govt. was forcing them to promote incompetents.

All that said, I think Bush picked Meirs because he is so damn insecure and stubborn and thought he could get by with it.

[Maddy McCall]

19. I've seen this in the university setting, too.

And in the professional setting.

[Fleshdancer]

18. Bush is the ultimate momma's boy....

and he seems to really listen to the women he surrounds himself with. So no, I don't think this was an elaborate sexist setup...besides, I think this plan is far too sophisticated for this admin.

I think Meirs was chosen because the neocons are control freaks and by having her on the bench, they would be able to have some control over the SC. After the extremely easy pass Roberts received, why wouldn't they think getting Meirs accepted would be any harder? They had no idea Katrina would fuck up their plans...it was the obvious insider/crony situation with Brown that made things tough on Meirs IMO.

[Maddy McCall]

21. Good point about the Katrina/Cronyism thing fucking it up.

But I still cannot see how anyone can believe that Bush is not hostile to women, just because he surrounds himself with them.

I wish I had time to research his policies that have been hostile to women. I have to take the dogs to the vet for the check-up, tho.

[Fleshdancer]

24. I totally agree that he's hostile to women in general....

but I think it's different with the women in his inner circle...same goes for minorities. He's an egotistical ass and Meirs plays to that side of him very well.

If his strategy was to pick a woman in order to see her fall, then I don't think he would have chosen Meirs. I think he really wanted her to be in the SCOTUS for control purposes.

[Demit]

25. I think he's hostile to everyone, out of his exalted sense of self worth.

It's a Bush family trait, considering themselves royalty. (Barbara can barely conceal her contempt for the little people. Poppy soft-pedals it better, and maybe even has some shred of noblesse oblige. But Junior is momma's boy, by all accounts.) This tailors quite nicely into the neocons philosophy that only the select few are fit to rule.

I think the Miers nomination was Bush's arrested-development way of laying a big fart in the middle of assembly, showing his scorn at what adults treat as solemn. That is, if it wasn't also in the back of his mind that the adoring Miers would be a solid vote for him personally, should his personal troubles ever bring him to the purview of the Court.

I just don't think Bush has any well-formed ideas, beyond his own comfort and his own pleasure at having power. I don't think he thinks about women qua women. Women, men--makes no difference, they're all there to be used by him whenever necessary.