http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/The president carefully and deliberately selected as his nominee for the vacant Supreme Court position the first person he ran into in the hallway this morning. He has been up front about this technique all along, what he called "the dartboard approach." It could have been anyone -- an usher, a steward, a dog-walker, the guy carrying the nuclear codes. Liberals will rejoice that it wasn't Rove. It turned out to be his former staff secretary, Harriet Miers, currently the White House Counsel. Her qualifications for the position are as follows:
1. She's a lawyer.
2. She's tight with Dubya.
3. She works just a few feet from Bush and thus saved him from the hassle of a protracted search.
4. She has never been a judge and thus has no record that might generate problems in a confirmation hearing.
Presidents run into trouble when they start nominating for the Supreme Court someone who already has a professional record as a judge. The rule in Washington is: Anything you say can and will be used against you. The way to assure that your nominee will be confirmed is to make sure the nominee has no known beliefs, opinions, thoughts, notions, or anything else that might be criticized by Ted Kennedy and his Lefty hand-wringing friends.
To judge from initial reports, Miers is 60, single, no kids, no known friends, no hobbies, no favorite color. There are parking meters in Washington that have a higher public profile than Ms. Miers. Had she not appeared on television today, many people would argue that she doesn't actually exist.