Blogs > MIERS HAS HIGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Oct 7, 2005

MIERS HAS HIGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE



Given the known facts, the anti-Miers hysteria is more than unbecoming, its down right offensive. The same pundits who complain about Democratic candidates being hijacked by that party's loony left are whining because the latest supreme court justice does not insure that taking extreme rightist positions will not prevent you from becoming a supreme court justice. Some want a fight in which they would humiliate the opposition in the midst of a world war. Smart. But I, a pro-choice absolutist, have also voted for Bush because of foreign policy considerations. I also trusted and tried to assure my friends that he will not start"a civil war" in the midst of it. I hope Miers will justify my trust. I am not sure. But whatever she does she, like Sandra Day O'Connor will understand the practical ramifications of her decisions.

Finally, a Supreme Court nominee who understands real people. Peggy Noonan grants the importance of that point but implies that Miers is too weak to stand her ground:

I don't know why this is, but I think it's connected to the fact that they're lucky, and it seems somehow hardwired in human nature that when people are lucky they come to think they deserve it: It's not luck, it's virtue. And since it's virtue my decisions are by their nature virtuous. I think I'll decree that local government, if it judges it necessary, can throw grandma out of the house and turn her tired little neighborhood into a box store that will yield higher tax revenues. Thus Kelo v. New London is born. I decree it.

She is right about Kelo but she forgets The barely noticed mayhem following the Supreme Court's Blakely decision. My daughter was working as a public defendant at the time the decision was made and told me about all the low-lifes that went free because saint Scalia ignored the warning of the previous woman with some real life experience, Sandra Day O'connor:

In her dissenting opinion in Blakely, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor predicted all the chaos we're now witnessing. She wrote,"The Court ignores the havoc it is about to wreak on trial courts across the country." To be sure, the mayhem has begun. Defense lawyers are filing Blakely motions daily with discordant results in various jurisdictions almost a certainty. The Senate judiciary committee will open hearings on July 13 on"Blakely v. Washington and the Future of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines." And intermediate appeals courts will be flooded with Blakely arguments until the Supreme Court revisits the issue.

Well, it has not and the issue has only become worse with state supreme courts entering the fray, legal expert unsure and dangerous criminal felons benefiting. Clearly, one associate judge cannot always succeed in bringing reality to bear. But without at least one matters are sure to get even worse.

The Supreme Court should not be a philosophical debating club but a place which is aware of its impact on real people's lives. For that they need high emotional intelligence and of that I an sure Miers has an unbelievable amount. I should know as I have none. In any case, there is no other way she could have achieved the leadership positions she did in the legal profession. If I am right, she will not only be confirmed but she will play just as important a role in shaping future court decisions as the woman she replaces.



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