About That David Brooks Column

There's a columnist named David Brooks who writes for one of those subscription-only sites. The site's unusual in that you can buy hard-copy versions of some of its posts in major metropolitan areas--a new distribution channel that some of the bloggers might want to explore.

Anyway, the gist is that Harriet Miers wrote mind-deadening columns when she was president of Texas bar association. Brooks suggests the following, just one of several examples, does not increase one's confidence in the ability of a Justice Miers to shape the future of American jurisprudence with an irresistible force and clarity of argument:

We have to understand and appreciate that achieving justice for all is in jeopardy before a call to arms to assist in obtaining support for the justice system will be effective. Achieving the necessary understanding and appreciation of why the challenge is so important, we can then turn to the task of providing the much needed support.

Whoa there, Miers, I may be able to understand that achieving justice for all is in jeopardy before a call to arms to assist in obtaining support for the justice system will be effective--but if I have to appreciate it too, sorry, I can't go there. As we say in Texas, "that dog won't hunt." Certiorari denied!

As Brooks says, we don't have much evidence to go on with Miers, and it hurts when the little we can find is so weak. And it is evidence we need, not this-just-in announcements from Hugh Hewitt that President Bush's right-hand man publicly supports his choice.