I have been silent for a month (or more). It wasn’t that I didn’t have any rants (or raves). It was sloth as much as anything. Now, I am back. W’s designee for the O’Connor seat on the Supreme Court is a woman who thinks W is the “most brilliant man she has ever known.” This woman – Harriett (Harry) Miers – was president of the Texas Bar Association. She consorted with (State) Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht when they were partners in the same Dallas law firm. Nathan Hecht certainly is not Felix Frankfurter or Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, but Hecht ("Hector" to W) did graduate from Yale with honors before he graduated — like Miers — from the SMU Law School (again with honors). W was rejected by the University of Texas Law School. Harvard took him in for a pity-MBA. All of this is madness. Harry Miers is a member of Hecht’s Bible church in Dallas. I know now that “Bible church” means non-denominational, charismatic, and a Religious Right orientation. Harry Miers – if she is true to her “Bible church” – upholds Intelligent Design over Science. If that is not enough, Chief Justice John Rogers indicated today that he will vote to overrule the Oregon Right-To-Die Law. The fundamentalists did not want to accept the verdict of Science in the case of Terry Schiavo. With Rogers and Scalia (and Thomas), we will have Harry Miers? All of this makes me queasy. On top of that, Miers thinks W is brilliant?!? The earth is flat, the moon is made of green cheese, and W is brilliant. If this is (fair & balanced) folly in the 21st century, so be it.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Harriett (Harry) Miers Thinks W Is The Most Brilliant Man She Has Ever Known?
Mo (The Cobra) Dowd loves to psychoanalyze W in her columns. She has a fascinating theory about W (43) and his hijinks. The son is trying to outdo dear, old Dad (41). Now, The Cobra delves into W's "office wives" — Condi, Karen, and Harry. Throughout his insignificant life, W received little respect from The Enforcer (Barbara Bush) and he probably gets little from the First Lady, so W loves to comport with women like Condi, Karen, and Harry. Of the three "office wives," Harry is the wackiest. She told David Frum, W's speechwriter who gave W the "Axis of Evil" line, that W was the most brilliant man she (Miers) had ever known. Gasp! I have called W a lot of things in this blog, but brilliant never entered my mind. Don Imus, this AM, noted The Cobra's musings today about the "office wives" and dismissed the piece as catty and mean-spirited. The I-Man needs to get a grip. W is an idiot. The United States Supreme Court doesn't need Harry. One village, one idiot and W already lives in DC. If this is (fair & balanced) truth, so be it.
[x NYTimes]
All the President's Women
By Maureen Dowd
I hope President Bush doesn't have any more office wives tucked away in the White House.
There are only so many supremely powerful jobs to give to women who are not qualified to get them.
The West Wing is a parallel universe to TV's Wisteria Lane: instead of self-indulgent desperate housewives wary of sexy nannies, there are self-sacrificing, buttoned-up nannies serving as adoring work wives, catering to W.'s every political, legal and ego-affirming need.
Maybe it's because his mom was not adoring enough, but more tart and prickly, even telling her son, the president, not to put his feet up on her coffee table. Or maybe it's because, as his wife says, his kinship with his mom gives him a desire to be around strong, "very natural" women. But W. loves being surrounded by tough women who steadfastly devote their entire lives to doting on him, like the vestal virgins guarding the sacred fire, serving as custodians for his values and watchdogs for his reputation.
First he elevated Condi Rice to secretary of state, even though she had bungled her job as national security adviser, failing to bring a sense of urgency to warnings about terrorism aimed at America before 9/11, and acting more as an enabler than honest broker in the push to invade Iraq.
But what were these limitations, considering the time the workaholic bachelorette logged at W.'s side in Crawford and Camp David, coaching him on foreign affairs, talking sports with him, exercising with him, making him feel like the most thoughtful, farsighted he-man in the world?
Then he elevated his longtime aide, speechwriter, memoir ghostwriter and cheerleader Karen Hughes to undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, even though it is exceedingly hard for the 6-foot Texan to try and spin a billion Muslims whom she doesn't understand the first thing about.
But who cares about her lack of expertise in such a critical job, as long as the workaholic loyalist continues to make her old boss feel like the most thoughtful, farsighted he-man in the world?
And now he has nominated his White House counsel and former personal lawyer, Harriet Miers, to a crucial swing spot on the Supreme Court. The stolid Texan, called "Harry" by some old friends, is a bachelorette who was known for working long hours, sometimes 16-hour days, and was a frequent guest at Camp David and the Crawford ranch, where she helped W. clear brush.
Like Ms. Hughes and Laura Bush, she's a graduate of Southern Methodist, and she has always been there for W. In 1998, during his re-election race for governor, Harry handled the first questions about whether Mr. Bush had received favorable treatment to get into the Texas Air National Guard to avoid the draft. Though the former Democrat once gave a grand to Al Gore in '88, she passed the loyalty test for W. during the Bush v. Gore standoff in 2000, when she recruited conservative lawyers to work for the Bush scion in Tallahassee.
But who cares whether she has no judicial experience, and that no one knows what she believes or how she would rule from a bench she's never been behind, as long as the reason her views are so mysterious is that she's subordinated them to W.'s, making him feel like the most thoughtful, farsighted he-man in the world?
David Frum, the former White House speechwriter and conservative commentator, reported on his blog that Ms. Miers once told him that W. was the most brilliant man she knew.
Bushie and Harriet share the same born-again Christian faith, which they came to in midlife, deciding to adopt Jesus Christ as their saviors. The Washington Post reported that she tithes to the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, "where antiabortion literature is sometimes distributed and tapes from the conservative group Focus on the Family are sometimes screened," and where, when she returns, Ms. Miers asks well-wishers to pray for her and the president.
Born Catholic, she switched to evangelical Christianity in her mid-30's and began to identify more with the Republicans than the Democrats, The Times reports today; she joined the missions committee of her church, which opposed legalized abortion, and one former political associate said that Ms. Miers told her she had been in favor of a woman's right to have an abortion when she was younger, but that her views hardened against abortion once she became born again.
W. is asking for a triple leap of faith. He has faith in Ms. Miers as his lawyer and as a woman who shares his faith. And we're expected to have faith in his faith and her faith, and her opinions that derive from her faith that could change the balance of the court and affect women's rights for the next generation.
That's a little bit too much faith, isn't it?
Maureen Dowd is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times and W's bête noire in the Fourth Estate.
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company
M.(organ) Scott Peck, MD — RIP
Scott Peck was my favorite shrink. The first sentences in each of his three big "Road" books went
- Life is difficult.
- Life is complex.
- There are no easy answers.
In addition to his 3 "Road" books, Peck wrote about golf: Golf and the Spirit. In his "Road" books, Peck frequently wrote about his wife, Lily Ho Peck, and mother of their three sons. After 55 years of marriage, Lily divorced Peck. After 37 years of marriage and a divorce myself, I couldn't imagine a divorce after a half-century of marriage, but stuff happens. If this is (fair & balanced) disjuncture, so be it.
[x The New York Times]
M. Scott Peck, self-help author
By Edward Wyatt
Dr. M. Scott Peck, the psychiatrist and author whose best-selling book "The Road Less Traveled" offered millions of readers an inspirational prescription of self-discipline, died Sunday at his home in Warren, Connecticut. He was 69.
The cause was complications of pancreatic and liver duct cancer, said Michael Levine, a friend and publicist.
Peck is among the founding fathers of the self-help genre of books. "The Road Less Traveled," published in 1978, and its later companion volumes have sold more than five million copies in North America, according to Peck's publisher, Simon & Schuster. The books have been translated into more than 20 languages, the publisher said.
"'The Road Less Traveled' really marked the beginning of contemporary self-help," said Jan Miller, a literary agent whose firm, Dupree Miller & Associates, represents other stars in the field. "It was a significant work because he was able to blend the psychology and the spiritual so magnificently."
In mid-1983, five years after publication, "The Road Less Traveled" reached The New York Times best-seller list. It has since spent 694 weeks on the list, the equivalent of more than 13 years.
The book focused on Peck's core belief that, as stated in its opening sentence, "Life is difficult," and that its problems can be addressed only through self-discipline. Humans, however, tend to try to avoid problems, a habit that only creates more difficulties, Peck said.
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times