The Katrina Syndrome

Until I read more about Harriet Miers and her background during the next few days, for now what interests me most about her nomination is the reaction among standard-bearing conservatives---actually, to be more accurate, the reaction of those who consider themselves as such; after the crass opportunism and intellectual hypocrisy of the past few years, the rest of us know differently at this point. But the self-flagellation over Miers is both hilarious and pathetic. Even before Katrina, exactly what about this president ever indicated that he favors either excellence or ideological consistency over personal fealty? In what way has George Bush as president ever embraced competence over a Soviet ethos of upwards-failing, medal-receiving mediocrity? I've always rejected the argument that if one votes for a politician who subsequently disappoints, that person has no right to complain. But not in this case. Conservatives who voted for Bush last year forfeited their basher privileges on this one---and those who do engage in public teeth-gnashing and recriminations will only betray their own shiftless hypocrisy. Because after four years we knew what this president was all about. One could either acknowledge it, or willfully remain oblivious to it. Those conservatives who chose the latter course are learning the bitter lesson that mediocrity disappoints both its enablers and its adversaries. That is its nature.

So if Miers is confirmed, we'll have a representative of the Katrina Syndrome sitting on the most important judicial bench in the land perhaps for the next quarter century---valuable, perhaps, as a historical artifact and as vestigial proof of what this administration was all about. And with that, we can look forward to legal opinions that reflect the sort of wisdom and perspective Miers demonstrated in the following statement, as relayed today by David Frum:

In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met.

Now read this recent dispatch from another part of the amen corner. They seem quite nicely in synch. Can we get her a gig over at Powerline instead?