On Miers: A blogger asks key questions

At Betsy’s Page, she posts today on aspects of the Miers nomination.

Among other things, she wants President Bush:

to answer the question about what specifically (Miers) has said or done that gives him that assurance that she is the type of judge that he said he would nominate. I don't want generalities that she is someone who won't legislate from the bench, but some example that proved to Bush that she is indeed that sort of person. I feel like I'm grading one of my student's essays which is full of nice generalizations about history with no specifics to support those generalizations. If there is some way that the Senators in her hearings can get at that, I would very much like to hear her answers.

You’re not alone, Betsy.

Betsy also examines some of the who, what and whys of the extraordinary public attention being paid to Miers religious beliefs, church attendance, etc. She wonders whether some conservatives and members of the Bush administration aren’t encouraging the attention. She asks whether others of us are “squeamish about this sort of public scrutiny of a nominee's personal religious beliefs.”

Yes, put my name down in the “Strongly Squeamish” column. I'm sure many of your names will be there, too.

Betsy asks rhetorically:

Do we really want judges who would base their decisions on their religious beliefs any more than we want them to base their decisions on their political beliefs?

It looks like some people do so long as the judges’ religious beliefs are the same as theirs.

Do you find it hard to believe some of the conservatives now reassuring each other about Miers based on her religious beliefs were just this past Spring excoriating Senator Schumer for suggesting federal appellate court nominee William Pryor’s religious beliefs might influence his decision-making?

Read Betsy’s post here.