For now, Dobson’s support is solid

October 13, 2005

The Rocky Mountain News ran a widely-cited article recently suggesting that James Dobson’s support for Harriet Miers is less than solid. I’m not so sure. Here’s the newspaper account:

“Lord, you know I don’t have the wisdom to make this decision,” Dobson said. “You know that what I feel now and what I think is right may be dead wrong.”

He added that he worried that his position “could do something to hurt the cause of Christ, and I’d rather sacrifice my life than do that.”

The problem is Dobson probably meant the opposite message of what the Rocky Mountain News inferred. The very same day, Dobson told Focus on the Family members that he recognized the implications of the decision, which is why his support was not offered casually.

“If I have made a mistake here,” Dobson said, “I will never forget the blood of those babies that will die that will be on my hands to some degree. That’s why I don’t take this lightly.”

He acknowledged the Miers nomination had “angered and disillusioned many Christian conservatives, many of my friends, many whom I love and have worked with for years.”

But asking if it makes any sense that President George W. Bush would sabotage the base of conservatives who worked and gave and supported him, Dobson answered his own question with a resounding — “I don’t believe it!”

“I don’t believe he’s done that,” Dobson said. “I don’t believe he would have nominated Harriet Miers if he knew that she was going to assassinate what he believed in and that the court would not be reformed the way he wants it to be.”

Dobson, in other words, acknowledged that he could be “dead wrong,” but he’s convinced he’s not. At least for now.

October 13, 2005 at 2:55 pm

While I wouldn’t want to predict Roe v. Wade, here’s a little comparative biography from Wikipedia for those many liberals who seem to feel that the reason we should oppose her is because of her so-called lack of qualifications. The only thing “better” about Thomas is his one year as a judge. A position he almost didn’t get because of his lack of qualifications. While Miers, on the other hand, seems to have much more going for her.

Wikipedia bios:

Clarence Thomas

He served as Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1974-1977, an attorney with Monsanto from 1977-1979 and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth from 1979-1981.

In 1981, he began his rise through the Reagan administration. From 1981-1982, he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education (“DOE”), and as Chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) from 1982-1990. Thomas cautiously accepted these assignments aware of the public thrust for placing minorities in government positions.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. At first, the nomination appeared to be stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee, until a copy of a “documents request” from the committee (which at the time was controlled by the Democrats and chaired by Senator Joe Biden) was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reprinted the documents request, taking up one-quarter of the op-ed page. In the ensuing negative publicity surrounding the documents request, Thomas’s nomination was discharged from the committee. Thomas was confirmed by the Senate in March 1990.

Harriet Miers

Miers entered Southern Methodist University intending to become a teacher. The economic plight of her family was so dire that she almost dropped out in her freshman year, but she was able to find part-time work that put her through college. Then her father had a debilitating stroke. When a lawyer was able to organize her family’s financial situation, Miers was inspired to enter law school [2]. Miers graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics (1967) and from its law school with a Juris Doctor degree (1970) . Miers also recently received an honorary degree from Pepperdine University.

In the late 1990s, while Miers was on the advisory board for Southern Methodist University’s law school, she helped create and fund a women’s studies lecture series named after pioneering Texas lawyer Louise B. Raggio, who was a mentor to Miers. [3]

[edit]
Career
In the summer of 1969, between her second and third years of law school, Miers worked as a clerk for Belli, Ashe, Ellison, Choulos & Lieff, the San Francisco law firm founded by “King of Torts” Melvin Belli[4].

After graduating from law school, from 1970 to 1972, Miers was a law clerk for the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Joe E. Estes.

From 1972 until 2001, Miers worked for the Dallas law firm of Locke, Liddell & Sapp (and predecessor firms prior to mergers). She was the first female lawyer hired by the firm, and later became its president. When the merger that created Locke, Liddell & Sapp took place in 1999, she became the co-managing partner of a legal business with more than 400 lawyers. In 2000 the firm settled a lawsuit asserting that “it aided a client in defrauding investors” for $22 million [5]. As a commercial litigator, she represented clients including Microsoft and the Walt Disney Company.

In 1986, Miers became the first female president of the Dallas Bar Association. In 1992, Miers became the first woman to head the State Bar of Texas. She has also served as chair of the Board of Editors for the American Bar Association Journal and as the chair of the ABA’s Commission on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice.

While head of the Texas Bar, Miers led an unsuccessful effort to have the American Bar Association repeal its official position favoring legalized abortion rights and adopt a neutral stance on abortion.

In 1989, Miers was elected to a two-year term as an at-large member of the Dallas City Council. She did not run for reelection in 1991 after a restructure of the city council converted Miers’s at-large seat, elected by voters citywide, into a single-district seat.

Miers met George W. Bush in January 1989 at an Austin dinner, an annual affair held for legislators and other important people. Nathan Hecht, her escort and a close friend of Miers, made the introduction. Miers subsequently worked as general counsel for Bush’s transition team in 1994, when he was first elected Texas governor. She subsequently became Bush’s personal lawyer, and worked as a lawyer in his 2000 presidential campaign.