President Bush and Samuel Alito: The Best Just Got Better!

I have finally taken leave of my sloth-induced absence to respond to the recent nominations of Harriet Miers and Samuel Alito. I have a theory regarding their twin nominations, so bear with me here. Many of us are familiar with the story of New Coke, introduced by the Coca-Cola Company in the mid-1980’s. As the story goes, to try and compete with rival Pepsi, Coca-Cola changed its once sacred formula and adopted New Coke in 1985. Once it became clear that everyone hated it, Coca-Cola relented and re-adopted its old formula (later called Coca-Cola Classic) three months later. Of course, once this happened, sales of Coca-Cola Classic soared, prompting conspiracy theorists to claim that was their objective all along.

So to it may be with President Bush’s recent judicial nominees. In order to appease democrats wanting a fight over the Supreme Court and taking his own loyal base of conservatives for granted with the disdain of Old Coke drinkers, President Bush appointed an unqualified counsel with a background from Southern Methodist University to the United States Supreme Court. Criticism almost immediately followed from the right and left over her rather undistinguished resume. The public relations backlash against the White House appeared to be devastating as it might have seemed that the democrats (and even some Senate Republicans) would succeed in blocking a Supreme Court nominee.

Then, last week Miers unexpectedly pulled out and withdrew her nomination to the Court, apparently in the face of overwhelming opposition from Bush’s base of conservative voters angry enough to assert that they would not simply hand this or any president a blank check to govern. They demanded her replacement be a solid and well-qualified conservative jurist, or else. That’s what they got yesterday in Samuel Alito, a Third Circuit Appeals Court judge, who is nicknamed “Scalito” by his critics (a rather ironic means of insulting someone, as any intellectual conservative should be sincerely flattered if being compared to Antonin Scalia). Judging by the reaction of the usual suspects- Teddy, Boxer, Feinstein, Reid, and Upchuck Schumer- Alito in fact does appear to be the solid choice many conservatives, those in favor of judicial restraint, and those who recognize a separation of federal powers were hoping for.

Which leads to the New Coke comparison theory. Perhaps President Bush had intended to appoint Alito or someone like him all along. True, he could have just appointed him from the get-go, but his nomination prospects might look a lot better if contrasted with those of an unqualified White House Counsel with a history of praising the likes of Hillary, Ann Richards and Barbara Streisand. Support for the President, even among conservative circles, was slipping with the way he’s handled the federal budget (outspending even the likes of Lyndon Johnson) and the border with Mexico (prompting archconservative and xenophobe Pat Buchanan to suggest impeachment as a solution to the supposed disease of immigration). The appointment of a solid judicial conservative like Samuel Alito after this apparent fiasco only serves to welcome the base back in to the President’s column. True, it may be that everything just described occurred purely by accident and coincidence, or maybe not. After all, stranger things have happened in Washington, particularly around this time of year.