To Bush: Pick Best Person for the Supreme Court

Dear President Bush;

I realize I haven't been too complementary to you in my postings in the last few weeks. In fact, I've hardly been able to bring myself to write your name, much less address you. Now, with Harry "I know her heart" Miers out of the running for Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, I'd like to encourage you to nominate the best person for the job.

I realize that it would create a battle for you at a time when it seems the windmills are closing in on all fronts. Your Right-Wingnut base would never go for the best person for the job, instead they will hold out for a justice who will abolish our civil liberties, deny us the right to privacy, fair and speedy trials and death with dignity, further the Right to Birth agenda by overturning Roe v. Wade and demand Evangelical Christianity become the law of the land. Their candidate would favor big business over individual rights, would be a Dispensationalist believing that it doesn't matter how much we foul up the Earth, the Rapture is coming as soon as we cut the last tree, would give you the right to torture or imprison as you will and would decree Pi to equal three, exactly as it states in the Bible. We'd have creationism in public schools, no need to mess around with that half-baked Intelligent Design hypothesis, public prayer would be required, and we'd have a nice little right-wing dictatorship going, the dictatorship of the majority, I believe, is how Jefferson put it.

Instead, Mr. President, I encourage you to appoint first someone of utmost intelligence. There's a reason justices tend to move to the middle in their political views: Age brings wisdom and intelligence is a prerequisite. Second, appoint someone from outside of the White House, someone you can release papers on without embarrassing yourself or implicating your aides in perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. Someone far away from your inner circle would be the best choice. It would even avoid charges of cronyism. Finally, appoint someone from the political center, in your case, a bit right of center would be forgiveable. Gonzales comes to mind, although we do have to keep the politically-correct gender balance of the court in mind. Would it be so hard, Mr. President, to appoint someone who represents the country, not just your Right-Wingnut base?

It won't happen. It would be a fight, I know, and you're quite weakend at this point. If only those damned crises would stop coming, you could go back to smirking and spouting the same tired rhetoric guaranteed to appeal to your base. Without the crises, you could get back to leading what you oppose: Government. You could sit in blissful ignorance in a White House without a newspaper subscription, get your news from Fox and your opinions from Rove, your spiritual guidance from Pat "Sixth Commandment" Robertson and James "Abuse 'em until they capitulate" Dobson, your talking points from Rush and all would, once again, be well in the Bush White House. You could do something right, Mr. President, about the first thing since the Afghan War, and appoint someone with the best interests of the country in their mind.

I'm betting on a wingnut.

Sincerely,
A Colorado Progressive