- While reading the released correspondence between then
Governor Bush and Harriet Miers, I became confused. Was I reading the notes
and letters of a trail-blazing attorney and likely future Supreme Court
Justice, or the fawning notes of a love-struck school girl?
-
- Disturbingly, the more letters I read, the more the latter
became an inescapable conclusion.
-
- Not since I taught high school have I seen such insipid
accolades put to paper. Reading Harriet's letters to Dubya, I felt oddly
uncomfortable, like I was reading notes of unrequited love. I felt as though
I was reading letters to the captain of the football team (cute, but not
so bright), written by the adoring, bookish girl, whose homework the captain
was always welcome to copy.
-
- "You are the best Governor ever deserving of great
respect!" (Exclamation point hers.) Thus gushed Harriet in a belated
birthday card (complete with just the cutest picture of a sad-eyed puppy
dog) from 1997. To close, Harriet teased, "At least for thirty days
you are not younger than me." Tee-hee-hee.
-
- (By contrast, in his birthday wishes to Harriet in 2000,
Dubya implored Harriet to "Have a great life!" Ouch.)
-
- In another card, Harriet took the time to hope that "Jenna
and Barbara recognize that their parents are 'cool' as do the rest of
us." Cool? That's the best she could do? What about rad? Groovy? Bitchin'?
How about awesome (as in "our God is an awesome God")?
-
- At any rate, Harriet thought Dubya was so "cool"
that she just couldn't help but exclaim, "Texas is blessed!"
Verily, Dubya was God's gift to Texas, just as he is now His gift to the
entire United States. Nay, the world! All of us are blessed to be ruled
by Dubya the Divine.
-
- Harriet's beatification of Dubya quickly returned, however,
to her more base and sordid emotions. Harriet promised Dubya, "I shall
always treasure the letter," then closed "with great admiration,
Harriet."
-
- Is it getting hot in here? All that's missing are some
X's and O's.
-
- In 1997, Harriet wrote to the governor, this time on
her firm's letterhead, thanking Dubya for a letter he had written on a
friend's behalf. The letter was typewritten, professional, and, but for
an obligatory exclamation point(!), subdued. But poor Harriet just couldn't
help herself. At the bottom of the letter, Harriet enthusiastically scrawled,
"You and Laura are the greatest!" (Emphasis Harriet's.)
-
- Also 1997, while serving as Chair of the Texas Lottery,
Harriet wrote yet another thank you note to governor Dubya, who was then
Harriet's boss. Staying true to her giddy, Dubya-adulating self, Harriet
proclaimed to the governor, "You are the best!" ("P.S. Do
you think I'm cute?")
-
- In a handwritten letter to Dubya from 1995, also written
on her firm's letterhead, Harriet thanked the governor for taking the time
"to visit in the office and on the plane back. Cool!" Again with
the cool, exclamation point? Why not dot her I's with hearts while she's
at it? How about some smiley faces?
-
- Is this really how a highly educated woman - the alleged
possessor of a great legal mind - addressed the governor of Texas? You're
cool? Harriet sounds more like a teenage girl, passing a note in class
to the boy she so desperately wants to like her. ("Thanks for giving
me a ride home in your Camero, Dubya. It was so cool!") Can you imagine
Sandra Day O'Connor swooning at a governor's feet? Ruth Bader Ginsberg?
Antonin Scalia?
-
- If confirmed, will Harriet be as enthusiastic in her
written opinions as she is in her correspondence to that dreamy Dubya?
Will the lower courts be "Affirmed!" or "Reversed!"
by Harriet? Will she go around to the other Justices' chambers, asking,
"Don't you think Dubya - I mean the President - is just the coolest?"
Oblivious to their rolling eyes, will she go on to ask, "Do you think
he likes me?" Will she continue sending mash notes to Dubya?
-
- After reading Harriet's embarrassing letters, I started
to think that maybe Dubya actually could predict that Harriet's mind would
remain unchanged twenty years from now. After all, it would appear that
Harriet's emotional development stopped more than forty years ago. Who's
to say that her intellect isn't similarly stunted?
-
- Okay, maybe I'm being a bit unfair. Maybe Harriet isn't
an emotionally stunted teenager in middle-aged clothing with an all-consuming
crush on Dubya.
-
- Maybe, instead, she's just a slobbering sycophant.
-
- _____
-
- www.politicsofdissent.blogspot.com
-
- Ken Sanders is a lawyer and writer in Tucson, Arizona.
His publishing credits include Op Ed News, Z Magazine, Democratic Underground,
Dissident Voice, and Common Dreams. More of his writing can be found on
his weblog at http://www.politicsofdissent.blogspot.com.
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