They Got Lost In The Game

Finally, some hard facts on Miers! Obviously Hallmark does indeed have a card line for insanely sycophantic evangelicals wanting to wish the object of their adulation a belated happy birthday. The Smoking Gun brings us:

The Harriet and George Letters

It's like that play Love Letters by A.R. Gurney, but without the normal human emotion. Still, we now know that Miers is obsessive about pseudo-gushing thank you letters and therefore probably likely to possibly overturn Roe v. Wade...perhaps.

Aside from conjuring disturbing images of Miers doodling "Mrs. Harriet Miers" in giant hearts all over the notebook that comes with her Trapper Keeper, the other thing I notice is that our Leader In Chief has the penmanship of a seven year old. Seriously, look at this chicken scratch:

W...T...F?

I mean, come on. Usually you have to be a doctor to have hand writing that bad. He's either thanking her for the birthday card or giving her terrorist instructions in Arabic.

All things considered, Miers' nomination is not the worst (nor the best) that G-Dub could have floated. At least she is a lawyer and thus has some relation to the Position That Cronyism Gave Her. Plus, she has the bonus of proving to the far-right once and for all that Bush doesn't give two shits about them or their agenda and hasn't since he first got into office. It was fun, in a way, to watch the Dems self-destruct in their desperate flight to the middle ground after BlowJobGate. I am now thoroughly enjoying watching the masters of dirty politics turn their mud guns on one another. Really, this is going to be better than a Crystal/Alexis heavy episode of Dynasty.

Still, as I'm popping my popcorn and watching the fun, it occurs to me that this is silly. Well, sillier than usual. Miers is an admittedly unknown quality. Qualified? Perhaps, but there are certainly people who are more qualified. Conservative? Probably, but there are people who are more qualified AND more outspoken about their conservativism. So why the game of Find The Queen?

The entire white house is going into crisis mode to reassure their conservative supporters that Miers is just the hate filled prick they've been clamoring for. But why? I mean, the Bush Faithful have been...well, faithfully, waiting for a message from the White House. They've worked their asses off to get him in that office for two terms now and, rightly so in this era of Governmental Looting, are expecting to get their backs scratched a little. Then he drops this chick with elbow length gloves on them and, understandably, they're pissed. Now Rove and Cheney and everyone is saying, "Trust us," while the conservative base is saying, "You know, we've gotten sort of screwed over the past 5 years, why should we trust you now?"

Maybe this is just more of the magic trick that is the Bush Administration. His whole run as left me with the feeling that G-Dub is just the distraction, the flashy handwork that demands attention, while the real trick is going on somewhere underneath the table. Perhaps there's a big reveal coming up soon and either Miers will be dumped in favor of a more outspoken hard-line conservative (an astute political maneuver which I doubt will happen as it would require G-Dub to admit to a mistake and we all know that isn't going to happen) or a video will be released of Miers leading the charge at the local Planned Parenthood clinic, bashing in the head of an abortion provider with a sign reading, "Jesus Loves The Little Children...Born and Unborn!"

Another possibility, though, is more interesting. Simply, that the political legerdemain has finally gotten to BushCo and now they're creating plots where there don't need to be any. Going around and saying, off the record, that Miers is a good little puppet that will rule exactly as instructed guarantees a fight in the nomination process, even if little is known about her. The fight is going to be as big as if a more prominent hard-right nominee were in her place. However, instead of having the whole of his base supporting him, Bush now has to contend with a miffed support base that's looking around and really not seeing the advances for conservative issues that they were promised and are being asked to "trust him" once again. Why make it this hard?

I've become a skeptic over the past five years and perhaps I'm just one conspiracy theory away from earning my membership in the Tin-Foil Hat Club, but this just weirds me out. Not only is there an ethical question about putting forth a candidate that will most likely refuse to answer hot-button issue questions in order to appear moderate while at the same time going around behind the scenes and saying that she's really a hard-line wolf in sheep's clothing. Not only is there ANOTHER ethics question regarding the fact that such a hue and cry was made regarding questions about the religious affiliation of Roberts while the same huers and criers are now whoring out Miers evangelical Christian belief. There's just a question of honesty. Why set yourself up to be deceitful if you don't have to be?

I guess, though, that's pretty much the theme of the past five years.