Hamilton and Harriet

The New Yorker quotes founding father Alexander Hamilton in reference to the Miers nomination. It is important, timely, and spot on. Hat tip to my friend Wendy - her professional website is linked to this one on the left side of your screen.

"However the Miers nomination turns out, the fact that
Bush submitted it is an unflattering reflection on his
character. In the Federalist No. 76, Alexander Hamilton
writes that the Senate's role in confirming appointments
is designed to make the President

both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most
distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had
no other merit than that of coming from the same State to
which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way
or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the
necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the
obsequious instruments of his pleasure.

Hamilton was no naif about human nature, but in the
present case his formula seems to have underestimated
the Presidential capacity for both shamelessness and - well,
courage isn't quite the right word. Arrogance."

--Hendrik Hertzberg
The New Yorker, 10/17/05