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From KELOLAND:As Congress works to cut three billion dollars worth of agriculture spending, South Dakota's senators are among those with concerns. One Republican proposal would reduce food programs for the poor by 574 million dollars and conservation programs by one...

Conservatives Confront Bush Aides

Sort of looks like the FDR Republican President and his Kool-aid vendors still have a lot of work to do to get the GOP base on board - assuming that they have any concern about even bothering to do so at this point.

The conservative uprising against President Bush escalated yesterday as Republican activists angry over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings. A day after Bush publicly beseeched skeptical supporters to trust his judgment on Miers, a succession of prominent conservative leaders told his representatives that they did not. Over the course of several hours of sometimes testy exchanges, the dissenters complained that Miers was an unknown quantity with a thin résumé and that her selection -- Bush called her "the best person I could find" -- was a betrayal of years of struggle to move the court to the right.

Although the Chief is still trying to be optimistic about the appointment, none of this exactly gives a warm glow. All there is is a (hopefully not forlorn) hope that Ms. Miers ultimately proves to be a sound constitutional originalist. Unfortunately, all there is is that hope...but not much substance at this point.

Question the "timing" until a goddamn bomb goes off, then blame Bush for not doing more to stop it. Perfect sense from the "reality-based" community....

In coordination with Progress for America, several states have launched websites in support of Harriet Miers. Nebraska is one of them: NEforJusticeMiers.com. The ad-hoc coalition is chaired by Steve Grasz, former Chief Deputy Attorney General for Nebraska....

Howard Dean talks about playing "hide the salami" on (ha) Hardball....

The more time that passes since President Dubya announced his choice of Harriet Miers for the SCOTUS, the more concerns become apparent.

Firstly, the disturbance in the political force has been noted all the way on the other side of the pond:

Bush nomination for swing vote with Supreme Court infuriates supporters

President George W Bush nominated a trusted aide for the key seat on America's top court yesterday but the choice infuriated his supporters on the Right far more than his Democratic foes.

No s--t, Sherlock! As to why...read on!

Ann Coulter, in her inimitable style of invective, PREDICTED the probable type of appointment that might be expected from Bush, based on his political record:

BOB SHRUM WITH A GOOD CAUSE

Now Bush has Sandra Day O'Connor's seat to fill. For those conservatives confident that Bush won't betray them, let's review Bush's other ideas about what constitutes a good Republican....
In 2002, Bush backed liberal Richard Riordan in the Republican gubernatorial primary in California against conservative Bill Simon....
In 2004, Bush backed liberal Republican Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania....
In 2004, Bush backed Mel Martinez for the open Senate seat in Florida and asked the magnificent Katherine Harris not to run against him, so she graciously bowed out. Martinez has since called on Bush to shut down Guantanamo. What's Spanish for "buyer's remorse"?...
This year, rumors have it that Bush is again discouraging the magnificent Harris not to run for the Senate....
Also this year, Bush is backing developmentally-disabled Lincoln Chafee over the only Republican in the race, Stephen Laffey, Harvard MBA and mayor of Cranston, RI....

As if that isn't enough to raise the hackles of a real conservative, that list doesn't even take into account the administrations domestic policy, which has acquiesced (when not actually promoting) a constant expansion of the role and power of the Federal government.

Most telling of all is Coulter's recap of the situation of the history of the GOP "establishment" (including the Bushes)with regards to the rise and eventual victory of Ronaldus Magnus. Check it out for yourself. HINT: The GOP establishmentarians were NOT very big on Reagan at all!

Her conclusion absolutely nails down the biggest difference between the gipper and the Dubya:

The secret to Reagan's greatness was he didn't need a bunch of high-priced Bob Shrums to tell him what Americans thought. He knew because of his work with General Electric, touring the country and meeting real Americans. Two months a year for eight years, Reagan would give up to 25 speeches a day at G.E. plants ? a "marination in middle America," as one G.E. man put it. Reagan himself said, "I always thought Hollywood had the wrong idea of the average American, and the G.E. tours proved I was right."

Because of these tours, Reagan knew ? as he calmly told fretful advisers after the Grenada invasion ? "You can always trust Americans." The G.E. tours completely immunized Reagan from the counsel of people like Karl Rove, who think the average American is a big-business man who just wants his taxes cut and doesn't care about honor, country, marriage or the unborn.

Michelle Malkin has a pointed and graphical MESSAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE:

She goes on to note: "Guess it's too late." Indeed.

Just to ice the conservative s--t cake:
Democrats are relieved about Miers pick from Tim Chapman posting at Townhall.com, noting a positive reaction from the likes of Bob Beckel, Sen. Charlie "No-guns" Shumer, and Sen. "Dingy" Harry Reid. This as much as any of the above, makes the Chief think that we may be in a heap of trouble on this one!

On a more serious (if possible) note, Randy Barnett transplanted from The Volokh Conspiracy writes in the WSJ Opinion Journal based of Hamilton's writing in Federalist #76:

"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity. . . . He would be 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." (The italics are mine.)

You have to go read the piece - the Chief won't attempt to recap this, but it's sure worth a look. Also worth a look are posts here and here over across the line in Minnesnowta from Powerline - suffice it to say they aren't real impressed with this appointment either.

There's much more than this out there - Emperor Misha's Rottweiler is snarling, but Captain Ed, while not fully pleased seems to be cautiously optimistic. The Chief is trying to be also, but it's hard not to be pessimistic given the weight noted above. I hope Cap'n Ed is right, but fear he may not be. Again, time will tell.

Rocket Racing League Organized!

How cool is THIS! The Chief likes it! In the first iteration this of course seems to be atmospheric rocket planes, but inevitably it'll go beyond. Just like aircraft racing in the 20's and 30's spurred aviation development and design, there's no reason why rocket racing can't do the same thing today.

The whole concept and underlying philosophy is positive. Folks, get ready - it's coming! This is from the same guys that posted the Ansari X-prize, that led to the Rutan Scaled Composite's suborbital space flyer, so they know how to make things happen!

A Lessons from Henry II

One of the arguments being bruited about, even by the President in this mornings presser, in defense of the Mier appointment is that in spite of a relatively lack of documentation to establish the views of the nominee, this is not anything to be concerned about, since the President has a long standing personal knowledge of her, and based on this, has full confidence that she will make decisions based on an originalist judicial attitude.

It was similar personal knowledge and assurance that let Henry II to appoint Thomas a Beckett, his long-time friend, confidante, and chancellor as Archbishop of Canterbury, in an effort to subject the rulings of the ecclesiatical court system to the monarch. Said attempt failed, when Beckett discovered and acted on a new-found spirit of independence once he was esconced in his new office.

The rest, as they say, is history, which led eventually to Beckett's murder, and Henry on his knees before the Pope to gain absolution.

Bush had better hope, that HIS judgement of his personal attorney is more accurate than Henry's was of his chancellor, or it could well be the death knell of constitutional government in the United States.

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