Perhaps I Should Get an Important Position Too

President Bush announced yesterday that he was nominating Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Ms. Miers is a noted attorney whose history includes being the first woman president of the Texas State Bar, and she became President's Bush's deputy chief of staff in 2003. There appears to be no doubt that people perceive her to be a competent lawyer.

There's just one minor problem with the nomination of Ms. Miers. She has never served as a judge, not even at the state or local levels. She has no track record of showing that she can be an impartial jurist. We have no idea how she would behave in a courtroom. Since she has never been a judge, there is no case history showing whether she would have strictly followed the law, or whether her rulings would have been consistently overturned on appeal. And since appointments to the Supreme Court are for life, this lack of history is problematic. Granted, she could turn out to be like William Rehnquist, who turned out to be an accomplished judge despite not having been a federal judge beforehand. The President trusts Ms. Meiers, and wants all of us to trust her too based on nothing more than his recommendation. But given the importance of this nomination, I would like something more than the President's gut feeling for the Senate when it provides its advice and consent.

But who am I to complain? Since the President is appointing people without any history of experience, I would like to suggest that he nominate me as the next Secretary of Defense. I'm sure that my career up to this point has made me an excellent candidate. Oh, nevermind -- I forgot the most significant qualification. I haven't been the President's trusted buddy for the past decade.