Banking on George..

George Bush's latest pick for the Supreme Court has turned out to be an enigmatic one. No one really seems to have much information on Ms. Harriet Meiers, except that she is a Bush confidante, works in the White House, has supported pro-life voices at least once in the past, and her law firm once gave money to the Hillary Clinton campaign for senator. She has no paper trail at all. Which I guess, serves the needs of the Bush camp pretty well. Democrats are supposedly pleasantly surprised by the Meiers nomination and some are even supporting her; I really don't see why this should be the case though, Bush didn't pick her because she is a liberal democrat, he picked her because she mirrors his philosophy.

This pick could literally shape the Supreme Court for many years to come and I find it extremely unsettling that people aren't taking this as seriously as they should. The Democrat camp should have come out swinging hard- this is not the pick they want, anything besides what they want should be heavily criticised and deliberated over. On the other hand, some Republicans are up in arms over her nomination. That I can see, but only because they don't yet realise how much she mirrors the President. There was even a report on CNN today that stated that the Presdient picked Meiers based on her religious beliefs.

I think Bush's pick will get confirmed and this smoke and mirrors charade will succeed. Harriet Meiers is a much worse pick than Judge Roberts. Atleast he has judicial experience. How can you possibly put a person who has not even judged one case on the Supreme Court bench? That too for life! Absolutely ridiculous notion. For god sakes, what happened to the notion that the most expirienced choices are the best choices? (even kids voting in highschool election campaigns realise that!) These are the 9 most important judicial positions in your nation, how can you fling an inexperienced, interest pandering lawyer into that seat? And in case someone forgot to mention, what happened to the seperation of administration and judiciary? Democracy needs checks and balances; a notion sorely missing from this equation.

What is even more alarming however, is the trend this nomination sets off. The next big nomination by this administration should be the Head of the Federal Reserve board, a position currently occupied by Alan Greenspan- arguably the most influential man in business today. Who will replace him when his term expires? If the trend continues, George will once again pick someone close to his ideals and if that means anything, it means conservative. Which creates a multitude of issues fo r the average American who (though he doesn't know it) is looking at rising gas prices, a pending inflation crisis, and a colossal foreign debt to boot. Add a few high priced military operations to that and you get the sense that if this trend does continue, the US population is in for a rough ride even after George leaves.

That is the worst part about these shoddy nominations- that this will be George's legacy. These judges will sit in office till they pass away, that leaves atleast five decades of policy being dictated at least in part, by the worst President since Reagen. This is indeed an alarming notion for Americans. It is alarming for everyone else too, for the Americans seem to have no clue.