Tell Us What You Really Think

Charles Krauthammer in a column titled Withdraw This Nominee:

When in 1962 Edward Moore Kennedy ran for his brother's seat in the Senate, his opponent famously said that if Kennedy's name had been Edward Moore, his candidacy would have been a joke. If Harriet Miers were not a crony of the president of the United States, her nomination to the Supreme Court would be a joke, as it would have occurred to no one else to nominate her.

But the only way this works is if Miers withdraws herself. She can make a speech about unfair criticism, about so-and-so being too big a distraction during an urgent period in American history, etc. etc. for-the-good-of-the-country. And it would  be. Bush vehemently opposes her withdrawal, kabuki ensues, in the end she's gone.

Which I would love, but then what? Is President Bush really going to nominate a Michael Luttig or Priscilla Owen after being taken to the woodshed by his conservative base? I hope so, but that looks like a long shot--like my Boston Red Sox coming back to sweep the ALDS.

Ah, but I can dream.

Comments

[Tom Pollard]

I'm not an authority on Japanese culture (by any stretch of the imagination), but did you perhaps mean "seppuku", rather than "kabuki"? The whole thing might be "kabuki", but "kabuki" isn't something I think "ensues"....

[Christopher Fotos]

Seppuku, or suicide to requite honor, is also a possibility! But more remote. I meant kabuki, commonly used in the West to indicate a ritual dance whose outcome is known.