[Mb-civic] Miers Hit on Letters and the Law - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Miers Hit on Letters and the Law
Writings Both Personal and Official Have Critics Poking Fun

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 15, 2005; Page A07

Supreme Court confirmation battles usually involve excavations of the 
nominee's judicial opinions, legal briefs and decades-old government 
memos. Harriet Miers is the first nominee to hit trouble because of 
thank-you letters.

Miers's paper trail may be relatively short, but it makes plain that her 
climb through Texas legal circles and into George W. Bush's inner circle 
was aided by a penchant for cheerful personal notes. Years later, even 
some of her supporters are cringing -- and her opponents are viciously 
making merry -- at the public disclosure of this correspondence and 
other writings from the 1990s.

Bush may have enjoyed being told by Miers in 1997, "You are the best 
governor ever -- deserving of great respect." But in 2005 such fawning 
remarks are contributing to suspicion among Bush's conservative allies 
and others that she was selected more for personal loyalty than her 
legal heft.

Combined with columns she wrote for an in-house publication while 
president of the Texas Bar Association -- critics have called them 
clumsily worded and empty of content -- Miers may be at risk of flunking 
the writing portion of the Supreme Court confirmation test, according to 
some opponents.

"The tipping point in Washington is when you go from being a subject of 
caricature to the subject of laughter," said Bruce Fein, a Miers critic 
who served in the Reagan administration's Justice Department and who 
often speaks on constitutional law. "She's in danger of becoming the 
subject of laughter."

Blogs are posting satirical Miers correspondence featuring made-up 
grammatical errors. Via e-mail, authentic Miers quotations have raced 
around the country, prefaced by derisive comments about her qualifications.

One example, from a May 1996 letter asking George and Laura Bush to 
appear at a ceremony honoring her, displayed both an obsequious tone and 
a tortuous prose style. "I am respectful of both of your great many time 
commitments and I realize you receive many, many requests," she wrote. 
"Of course, I would be very pleased if either of you is able to 
participate. However, I will be pleased with your judgment about whether 
participating in this event fits your schedule whatever your decision. . 
. . I feel honored even to be able to extend this invitation to such 
extraordinary people."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401979.html
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