Doug Thompson at Capitol Hill Blue has been accusing President Bush, a “shallow frat boy, bored with yet another job he could not handle,” and “who never really had to fight for anything in his life,” of alcoholism, drug use, and depression for a while now. In today’s Rant, he speaks of Bush’s performance at a press conference responding to criticism from the right wing on his latest Supreme Court pick, which comes even though “her two-decade-long membership in the Valley View Christian Church [a conservative nondenominational Christian church that preaches against abortions and gay marriages] suggests how she might stand on hot-button social issues regarded as top priorities to social conservatives who form a cornerstone of Bush’s support.” According to Thompson:
Just a few months ago, these same wild-eyed conservatives praised Bush to the heavens for being a “great leader” who, they said, would never “cave in to polls.” Now these same whiners and moaners decry Bush as spineless sap who, you guessed it, caved in to the polls.
The right wing may be over-reacting. This woman reportedly “walks her faith in everyday life.”
“[Harriet Miers] hasn’t said a lot, but you don’t go to a church for 25 years if you’re not comfortable with what they think,” said Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht of Austin, Texas, a church member who says he’s shared a “semi-romantic” friendship with Miers for more than 30 years. “I’m sure she’s consistent with the church’s position.”
It is unlikely conservatives are trying to deflect potential liberal criticism by criticizing her themselves. The New York Times reported that “[t]o persuade the right to embrace Ms. Miers’s selection despite her lack of a clear record on social issues, representatives of the White House put Justice Hecht on at least one conference call with influential social conservative organizers on Monday to talk about her faith and character.” It appears that many conservatives really don’t know her.
Unfortunately, very few do.