Good Christian Does Not Automatically Equal Good Judge

I've been listening to the discussions on the radio today about the White House effort to reach out to prominent evangelicals in order to reassure them that Harriet Miers is a good Christian. Bush himself described the effort during a new conference:

"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush told reporters at the White House. "They want to know Harriet Miers' background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."

Bush, speaking at the conclusion of an Oval Office meeting with visiting Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, said that his advisers were reaching out to conservatives who oppose her nomination "just to explain the facts."

He spoke on a day in which conservative James Dobson, founder of Focus on Family, said he had discussed the nominee's religious views with presidential aide Karl Rove.

I believe this effort was done to try and convince skeptical evangelicals that Ms. Miers will be the kind of conservative judge they were hoping for, but frankly it doesn't do anything for me. Why? Well my Christian brethren may vehemently disagree, but I don't want someone to join the Supreme Court so they can rule on issues from a Biblical perspective. I want people on the court who are going to rule on issues from a constitutional perspective, because that's what the job is.

If we lived in Iran where the country is ruled by mullahs who hand down religious edicts which have the authority of law, then the religious test would be very important. But we don't live in Iran. We live in a country founded on laws with the basis for those laws in the Constitution, and that's the only document which should be consulted when making decisions.

Frankly, I would be much more impressed with the nominee who told me that Roe v. Wade should be overturned because it's bad constitutional law, than the nominee who told me Roe v. Wade should be overturned because it's not Biblical. The Constitution and the Bible are not the same, and what may be Biblical may not be constitutional, and vice versa.

This is where I have problems with Ms. Miers, because we simply don't know where she stands on constitutional issues. We can make assumptions based on a few facts that we do know about her, but you know the value of assumptions. I also think this effort to reach out to evangelicals will come back to bite the president in a big way.

With the religion issue now firmly on the table and the emphasis on the fact that her church is ardently pro-life, and with Dr. Dobson as a leading voice of support, I think the president just guaranteed the loss of every Senate Democrat vote, "Independent" Jeffords, and on the Republican side, he probably just wrote off the ladies of Maine and the Rhode Island RINO. That's 48 no votes, and we haven't even gotten to the wishy-washy Republicans like Voinovich or DeWine, or the '08 presidential hopefuls like Allen, Brownback and Frist who can't afford to start the campaign by ticking off the conservative base. He only has to lose three more and it's all over. That's why I'm sticking to my prediction from Oct. 6th that Miers will never sit on the court.

President Bush basically said "trust me" to those of us who were hoping for a strong conservative nominee. Rush had a quote on his show today that seemed particularly appropriate:

"Back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, 'Trust me,' and a lot of people did. Trust-me government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man, that we trust him to do what's best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person, or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs, in the people, the responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their leaders."

That was Ronald Reagan during his acceptance speech at the 1980 GOP convention. He was right then, and maybe that's why "trust me" is not good enough.

I think this whole thing has been badly played by the White House, and they'll regret the decision to go forward with this nomination.