RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

So I have this theory about Harriet Miers, the latest nominee for the US Supreme Court.

I picture a staff lunch. Everybody who works at the West Wing is there -- Turd Blossom and the gang -- munching on dry turkey clubs and sucking on Safeway Select sodas.

They talk about University of Texas football -- shouts of "hook 'em horns" fill the room. They debate the joys of semi-automatic gun ownership. They wonder which explosives are best for taking out abortion clinics.

Then the designated bad-news deliverer -- who has made sure to finish eating his lunch just in case he gets thrown out of the room -- reminds the president that he needs to nominate a Supreme Court judge soon.

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets that I have to do that," says the president. "Okay, anybody in this room want to be on the Supreme Court? Harriet, how about you? You look smokin' hot in black!"

And so it went. The woman is a lawyer, but she's never been a judge. That presents quite the poser, since she has no judicial record for critics (or supporters) to refer to. On the other hand, I believe that the last Supreme Court justice who had no judicial experience was Earl Warren. He didn't quite turn out to be the conservative that the Republican president who had nominated him expected, did he?

And the White House went out of its way to point out that 10 of the last 33 Supreme Court nominees were, like Miers, cronies of the guy in the Oval Office. This is the old "Billy did it, so I can do it, too" defense, which is about the level of intellect involved here (and routinely displayed by these folks).

Democratic Sen. Harry Reid is said to have been one of her recommenders. Considering the state of the Democratic Party, I'm not sure that reassures me.

I will keep an open mind here, but I don't expect much.