Reading though the commentary ignited by President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court — from Hugh Hewitt, Thomas Sowell and Thomas Lifson's defenses of the President's choice to the daisy—cutter air strikes on it by Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, David Frum and George Will — is like watching the finals at Wimbeldon: the volley itself is so spectacular that it nearly makes you forget who you're rooting for.

But for all their verbal pyrotechnics, the world—class commentators have failed to articulate what it is about the President's choice that has so enraged the GOP base.  Speaking as one grass root out here in the hinterlands, may I be allowed to chime in?

Imagine that you have worked and saved for twenty years to build your dream house.  When the time finally comes to get the project under way, you interview several architects and finally locate one who understands what you want.  Indeed, he shows you drawings of homes that look precisely like the design you've been dreaming of.  So, you hire this architect and wait impatiently for his plans to arrive in the mail.  And when they do, the house he's designed doesn't look at all like the one you wanted — it's very different from those drawings he showed you and which convinced you to give him the contract.  When you call to protest he cuts you off in mid—howl and says, 'I'm the architect and I know what's best.  Just relax.  When you get used to my plans, you'll like them and you'll see I was right.'  He tells you to forget about a refund, then slams down the phone.

No issue matters more to the GOP base than the Supreme Court.  For twenty years we have been working hard to move that court in a different direction, and we have sought a President who would make that happen.  When candidate George W. Bush cited Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as his models for what future justices should be like — he closed the deal.  This above all else is why those of us out here in the grass roots contributed money to his campaign, rang doorbells, plastered our cars with 'Bush—Cheney' bumper stickers and put out yard signs.

In choosing Harriet Miers, President Bush broke the deal.  And like that arrogant architect, when we squawked he cut us off by saying, 'Relax, trust me.  When you get used to my choice you'll like it and you'll see I was right.'  The President may in fact be right.  Only time will tell.  But this isn't what we bought and paid for, and the President seems deaf to our concerns.

Pulling a fast one on the people who hire you is never a good idea, in business or in politics.  Out here in the grass roots, a lot of us are thinking less about the President's choice than we are thinking that perhaps the President, like that architect, needs to be reminded who works for whom.

Herb Meyer   10 08 05