By Ann
Coulter
© 2005 Ann Coulter
The Bush White House has turned into the Nixon White House ? complete
with Harriet Miers as its Rosemary Woods, with an 18-year gap in her
credentials.
As president, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, created the
Environmental Protection Agency, initiated race-based hiring schemes,
signed SALT I with the Soviets and instituted rapprochement with the Red
Chinese. All of this resulted in liberals ... despising him even more!
After five years of Nixon's ignoring conservatives ? where else would
they go? ? when liberals came after him for Watergate, conservatives
ignored Nixon. (As the details of Nixon's "dirty tricks" came out,
conservative columnist Stan Evans reportedly told Pat Buchanan: "I want to
apologize for all my attacks upon your administration. I would never have
done that if I had known you were into all that good stuff we've been
hearing about lately.")
For five years, Bush has initiated massive spending programs,
obstinately refused to protect the borders and signed restrictions on
political speech into law. His veto pen remains unopened and unused in its
original shrink-wrapped case. Bush treats conservatives like the Democrats
treat the blacks (which is to say, pretty badly).
Conservatives were unhappy, but we were confident Bush would never let
us down on the two issues that mattered more than anything else: the war
on terrorism and the Supreme Court.
And now, although Bush has been bold and strong against the terrorists,
it is beyond question that he has betrayed conservative hopes for the
Supreme Court.
The way Bush has been attacking his base lately, he better hope
liberals start to love him. There aren't going to be a lot of
conservatives left to defend him if someone in the White House gets
indicted or something. (But at least he can always count on Fox News
analysts!)
When conservatives erupted in pain and rage that the president had
thrown away a Supreme Court seat on his personal lawyer ? because she's a
girl and Laura wanted a girl ? administration flacks snippily informed
right-wing activists that they didn't get a vote. Only senators vote on
judicial nominees (that is, whenever Democrats allow it).
Next, the Bush White House accused conservatives of elitism and sexism
for opposing the former Texas Lottery commissioner for the Supreme Court.
Then we discovered the White House actually believes everything
liberals say about conservative Christians ? that we are "uneducated" and
"easily led." After administration officials snookered a few evangelical
leaders into supporting Miers, they sat back and congratulated themselves
on a job well done. But evangelicals are, at best, split down the middle
on Miers. Apparently, Christians aren't so easily led. (That's what you
get for believing the Washington Post!)
Now the White House is threatening Republican senators who are thinking
of voting against the former lottery commissioner. To deliver this
message, Bush chose Tom Rath, a Republican functionary in New Hampshire
who brags on his Web page that he "actively assisted in the U.S. Senate
process that confirmed David Souter as Supreme Court justice."
At least Bush found a man with impeccable credentials to promote the
Miers nomination. Note to the promotions department: You can stop printing
up those "Trust Me!" T-shirts. I don't think we're going to need them!
Finally, to throw us totally off balance, Bush did something weird and
scary this week: He nominated Ben Bernanke for Fed chairman ? A MAN WHO'S
TOTALLY QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB. The White House has yet to explain how this
happened.
Politicians and Fox News analysts afraid of upsetting the White House
keep saying we need to wait for the hearings to see if Miers is qualified.
This is like saying we need to wait for the hearings to see if Miers is a
polar bear. We already know the answer! She's not a polar bear, and she's
not qualified. The Kabuki theater of nomination hearings will not tell us
anything new.
It's as if all Miers needs to do during the hearings is utter the magic
words ? say she opposes "judicial activism" ? and conservatives will love
her! I have news for you: Chuck Schumer claims he opposes "judicial
activism," too.
In fact, the only two people who will derive any benefit from the
hearings are Joe Biden, who will finally look like a constitutional
scholar, and Harriet Miers, who might learn something about the
Constitution from him.
Democrats are so happy at the mess Bush stepped in with the Miers
nomination that they don't want to help him by opposing her. The NARAL
ladies will have to take a back seat to Democrat dreams of an impotent
George Bush. Yeah, maybe Miers will vote to overturn Roe, but that still
won't create a majority to overturn it.
But if Miers gets on the court, Democrats can have their way with Bush.
He will have exposed himself as a scaredy-cat. Most important, his armies
will be gone. This isn't a game of kick the can, where Republicans fight
for any idiot with an "R" on his shirt. Republicans support Bush because
he's a Republican, not whether or not he is a Republican. With the Miers
nomination, Bush has screwed his base, screwed Republican senators,
screwed legal conservatives. Good luck with those indictments! Maybe Tom
Rath can help you.
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Ann Coulter, well-known for her television appearances as a
political analyst, is an attorney and author. Dubbed "one of the 20 most
fascinating women in politics" by George magazine, Coulter has appeared on
ABC's "This Week," "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today," CNN's "Larry
King Live" and CNBC's "Rivera Live."
