Justice Miers it is

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

Bush has nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Miers has no judicial experience at any level—state or federal—and no elective experience except for one term in the Dallas City Council.

This could make for interesting cases, but I'm too attached to the civil-law idea of a judicial career to think it's a bonus. Judging requires acertain temperament, which is best cultivated through many years of practice. The Supreme Court, of course, is the least typical of all courts, but I'm not sure that reinforcing this exceptionalism (as through the appointment of people wholly outside the judicial system) is a good thing either.

The most revealing element of the nomination, to be sure, is that it continues to show the Bush White House as a loyalty-obsessed club. Bush's personal lawyer in Texas is elevated to White House Council and from there to the highest court in the land. Ultimately, such personalized politics can't be good for the GOP (not to say the country); even if they confer a short-term strategic advantage, as soon as an internal rift appears in the party ranks it will reverberate ever more loudly across the entire political system.