As Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s public reputation reached new depths this week, Vox’s Ian Millhiser took the opportunity to write a rather brutal condemnation of the far-right jurist, condemning Alito as “one of the worst judges of his generation.”
Alito “rejects the very basic idea that courts must decide cases based on the law, and not based on their partisan views,” Millhiser wrote. “He routinely embarrasses himself in oral arguments, and in his published opinions, with legal reasoning that no sensible lawyer can take seriously. And he even tries to distort public debate and silence critics. But most of all, Alito is one of the most uninteresting thinkers in the country.”
Ouch.
But as I read the Vox piece, I was also reminded of a detail that often goes overlooked: When George W. Bush tapped Alito to succeed Sandra Day O’Connor on the high court in 2005, the far-right jurist was the then-president’s second choice.
Bush’s first choice was Harriet Miers.
Her nomination was, by any fair measure, a tough sell given her professional background — which did not resemble a typical Supreme Court nominee in any way. Miers had served as Bush’s personal attorney during his tenure as governor, for example, when she wrote him charming notes, telling him he was “the best governor ever,” who was “cool” and “the greatest.”
Once in the Oval Office, Bush brought Miers with him to the nation’s capital. In 2001, she was named the White House staff secretary. In 2003, Miers was promoted to deputy chief of staff, and in 2004, she became White House counsel. A year later, Bush took the next step and made his former lawyer a Supreme Court nominee.
The then-president made a great many strange decisions during his tenure, especially when it came to personnel, but this was among his most embarrassing mistakes. As my MSNBC colleague Lisa Rubin explained a couple of years ago, “Miers withdrew within weeks, in part due to her relative inexperience but more so because of vociferous opposition from anti-abortion conservatives. Days later, Bush announced a more reliable anti-abortion nominee: then-Judge Alito.”
I covered the story closely at the time, and there was plenty of mockery of Bush and his poor judgment. But on Capitol Hill, the Democratic message went in the opposite direction. NBC News reported the day after Miers’ nomination was announced: … Bush insisted that “people are going to be amazed at her strength of character and intellect.” But that left open the question: If Miers is a classy, top-of-the-line conservative, then why was Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., beaming in contentment at his press conference Monday when he proclaimed that in nominating her, Bush had rebuffed “the very extreme wing of his party”?
Democrats didn’t belittle Bush for choosing an unqualified Supreme Court nominee; Democrats were relieved that Miers wasn’t Alito. The New York Times’ Ezra Klein noted on Threads yesterday, “There’s a reason [then-Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid tried damn hard to get Harriet Miers on the Court. He thought anyone else Bush would nominate would be worse, and he was right.” Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson added, “Wonder what life would have been like if Harriet Miers joined the court instead of Alito.” I have the same thought all the time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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