Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

What was the President thinking when he decided to hand his unknown and unremarkable 60-year-old personal lawyer, Harriet Miers, a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court? We do know that, in one sneaky stroke of political stealth, the President avoided a showdown with the intellectually-bankrupt left and denied the country a long-overdue and constructive debate of ideas; about the Constitution, the role of the Supreme Court and about many of the most important issues of our times. And he did it by picking a nobody he claims is the most qualified somebody anybody never knew. But we have seen too much of this White House and Senate (and are only too-aware of the stakes involved in Supreme Court picks) to accept Miers' nomination on its face without knowing more about her. So far, the reasons the White House has given us to like Harriet are pretty thin... "She went to public schools and then worked her way through a good, but not great, university" Well, so did I and so did most of my friends, but none of them are qualified to be a Justice on the Supreme Court, and I've already got a job.... "Harriet is good to her mother." Whew, it's a relief to know she's not Lizzie Borden, but we're not sure that's a great credential for the High Court. ..."She's a regular church-goer." So are Jimmy Carter, Pat Robertson and Osama bin Laden, but none of them has ever demonstrated a particularly deep understanding of, or high regard for, our Constitution.... "She's a woman." Then we can do better than Harriet. That's the same old saw that gave us affirmative-action-hire-for-life Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In Ruth's case, it was also used to obfuscate her well-known record as an ACLU acolyte of Karl Marx. But as bad as that record may have always been, at least it was a record. We knew what we were getting with Ruth, we just couldn't stop it. This time, if you really want to name a woman for the sake of naming a woman, then name a woman who's really a woman. Give us Jessica Simpson. Even (and more likely, especially) Ted Kennedy will support the pick. She's younger, a more accomplished professional in her field, and obviously a finer woman by any reasonable definition of the word. She doesn't come with any anti-American baggage. And she's from Texas!.... "I know her heart." Didn't you say that about Vladimir Putin while he was helping Iran build nukes?.... "I ran her by senators from both parties." She's got Harry Reid's endorsement? Well, hey, why didn't you say so? We were worried for a minute there.... "You can trust me." Why should we have to?.... This isn't brain surgery. A majority of people put George W. Bush in the White House twice... and gave him Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate to boot... largely because these critical judicial appointments were too important to be left to moonbats like Al Gore and John Kerry. And we've quietly swallowed a lot along the way. Spiraling spending, sieve-like borders during a terror war, unnecessary compromise with the left and the waffling and treachery of too-clever-by-half, linguine-spined Republican Senators and Congressmen; the list goes on. There are too many good reasons a lot of us who voted for Bush aren't ready to jump on the Harriet Miers bandwagon without knowing more. Trust? We trusted your Dad and we got David Souter. This time we're going to do it the way Ronald Reagan said to do it, especially when the stakes are high: "Trust... but verify." The long arm of the law reached out and grabbed Michael Moore's favorite mom-in-mourning, Cindy al Sheehan, as she and her pals partied and protested recently in the nation's capital. Despite being blown off the front page by killer hurricanes, and now largely-ignored by an increasingly astute and weary public, Cindy was tickled to be pinched. "I haven't been passed around like that since I dropped acid with Crosby, Stills, Janis Joplin and four of Arlo Guthrie's roadies under the stage at Woodstock. The first Woodstock," she giggled. At least one of the unnamed arresting officers was later treated for a nasty rash. The other lost a glove and a watch. Both deny returning Cindy's repeated calls.... Justice remains to be served for acquitted murderer O J Simpson, but he's still looking for it. October 3 marked the tenth anniversary of the day when the football legend walked out of Judge Lance Ito's courtroom a free man pledging to find the murderer of his ex-wife, Nicole, and a waiter named Ron Goldman. Demonstrating the same drive and determination that won him a Heisman Trophy, Simpson has spent countless hours searching the golf courses of South Florida for clues leading to the killer. Sometimes frustrated, but never giving up, "The Juice" has apparently also spent some time staking out the Krispy Kreme hoping to get the drop on the real killer of his children's mother. A rotund Simpson returned to Los Angeles this week to commemorate the past decade by autographing sports memorabilia for a fee at a Tinsel Town horror movie convention. When asked about the progress of his search for Nicole's killer, O J said, "I ain't payin' Fred Goldman a dime and if I ever find the guy who killed Nicole, I'm goin' to cut him deep and bleed him out. And this time, there ain't goin' to be any blood and stuff in my car and house when I'm done." The late Johnny Cochran was unavailable for comment but would, no doubt, have marked the occasion with a glib soundbite.... And in a world that needs far more "Justice" than "Juice" we're all more than a little diminished by the passing of legendary Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal at age 96. In 1945, the Polish-born Jew emerged from four years in twelve Nazi concentration camps (five were death camps), upright at nearly six-feet and weighing just under one-hundred pounds. Simon and his wife, Cyla (also a survivor), lost a total of 89 relatives in the Holocaust. With a promise to his fallen family (and six million other brutally-murdered Jews) that he would "never forget," Wiesenthal embarked upon what would become a life-long and worldwide quest to uncover, capture and convict those who killed his people. Along the way, his efforts delivered the sword to the likes of Adolf Eichmann (the engineer of "the final solution"), Karl Silberbauer (the Gestapo officer responsible for the arrest of Anne Frank) and 1,100 other of the most rotten of war criminals ever. Men like Wiesenthal are rare, and I suppose that's probably a good thing if considered in a certain light. But at the same time, his tenacity and hunger for justice... and his sense of duty to real victims... are inspirations for all of us.