Sorry Folks

Many apologies, for some reason my laptop has been telling me all morning that Blogger is "temporarily down for maintenance." Must be a cookie issue or something, since when I pulled out the old clunker laptop to check (after I noticed other people were able to update), it seems to be working just fine. Anyway, I have not actually been ignoring the news from this morning, I just haven't been able to upload. I have posted just below an early comment on the Miers nomination, which I really am perplexed about. I'm sure I'll have more on that over the course of the day, but after a few more hours of circumspection it still strikes me as strange.

I don't think there will be a huge fight again over this, unless it's about cronyism and/or document handovers. I think the early conventional wisdom from the press about this (that she's been picked as a relatively easy confirmation because the White House has more than enough other battles to fight at the moment) are probably more likely than the "sacrificial lamb" scenario I put forth earlier.

But all that remains to be seen. I'm not completely turned off by this morning's news as many right-wingers seem to be ... if anything I guess I'm surprised. I have much to learn about Miers and her views, and I'll be spending as much time as I can on that over the next couple of days.

[Update: I do want to be clear on this and the last post - I'm not faulting Miers for having no on-the-bench judicial experience. I don't think that's necessarily a problem at all. After all, some of our greatest justices had not been on the bench prior to their nominations. Just overall though, she does not seem to have the kind of resume that would lend itself naturally to consideration for the Supreme Court. She may well be qualified, and I look forward to hearing more on her record and her achievements. -- 12:07 p.m.]