HARRIET AND THE RABID RIGHT

The nomination of Harriet Miers to be a Justice of the United States Supreme Court has created a most interesting paradox. The Democrats and liberals, who presumably would be shouting like banshees, are notably silent. On the other hand, the Republicans and conservatives, who heretofore have accepted President Bush’s judicial nominees with a Pavlovian lock-step affirmative vote, are screeching their protest.

Is it because she is too liberal? Hardly. Is it because she is not conservative enough? They admit they don’t know, but that she probably is. What then has the right wing intelligentsia so distressed and agitated?

The rabid right is up in arms over the Miers nomination because they got a conservative, but not an “in-your-face” conservative. They got half a loaf, and they wanted it all.

The rabid right may have gotten a judge who will vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, but they fear that she will not do so with the fire and brimstone of an avenging angel roaring out hellfire and damnation on all who oppose His will. They are infused with an arrogance that makes them more interested in polemic than principle.

It is not satisfactory merely to overturn Roe. Those who support a woman’s right to control her body must be crushed. Control of women must be burned into stone and placed in the courthouses of the country along with the Ten Commandments. Back alleys and coat hangers are of no concern when power to control the life of another is within their grasp.

At first the right was cool to John Roberts’ nomination. But the cockles of their hearts were warmed (if that is ever truly possible) when they took a look and discovered that Roberts was truly a believer who would project the right wing creed with a cold, nasty screed. When they saw that Roberts argued that Congress could strip the Supreme Court of the authority to rule on cases regarding school prayer, abortion, busing for desegregation and other issues, a position even more extreme than that adopted by the Reagan administration, they practically went into orgasmic ecstasy. Here was a man who would slay the dragon of equal rights, and would take no verbal prisoners. The reprehensible concept that government should be for the people and not just for the elite would surely be rendered asunder by the patrician Roberts.

With one more appointment, heaven on earth would be within their grasp. Evil would be given a severe blow, but by no means would it be vanquished; for the lack of an enemy doesn’t garner votes for the cause. And, as the right wing found upon the demise of the cold war, it is easier to work with the enemy you have created than to work to create a new one.

And then along comes Harriet! She is no burning Valkyrie like Priscilla Owen who ignites the right wing with judicial activism in attempting to rewrite a parental notification statute to fit her right wing ideology. No flim-flam man is she who can turn political contributions, contributed to buy favors, into speech; and say with a straight face that this was the original intent of the Constitution, as George Will pines for.

Listen to conservative activist Gary Bauer, "There are probably seven to eight names that have been looked to, have written wonderful decisions that are strong intellectually, compelling in their presentation.” “Compelling in their presentation?” Meaning that they give the right wing the red meat it needs to keep the masses agitated, restless, resentful, and malleable – and, most importantly, voting the right wing way.

We do not know yet what kind of judge Harriet Miers might be. What seems clear is that she will never be “right” enough to please the in-your-face mob of the rabid right. If she is confirmed, there seems no way that she can escape the right wing hall of infamy currently occupied by David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Harry Blackman.