From Tena:

Newt Knows: Support Miers, Don’t Oppose, from The Conservative:

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich knows who should and should not be supporting and opposing the confirmation of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to be the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

If you favor judicial activism and secular extremism, you should be horrified by Harriet. And opposing. Desperately.

If you favor the God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you should be very happy with Harriet. And supporting. Enthusastically.

If you preferred another, or even lots of others, because you knew good things about them and nothing or next to nothing about the modest Ms. Miers, you may have an unfortunate tendency to underestimate Southern ladies of a certain age and you do have a need to learn about her and get over your personal disappointment by putting principle above personality.

Newt knows, and dares to publicly state, what some conservative critics of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers who have never run for public office (UNlike Ms. Miers), either do not know or do not admit:

“Conservatives should feel confident with the selection of Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court for a simple reason: George W. Bush selected her.”

I have no idea if Newt really knows anything about Harriet Miers, since damn few people seem to. The Dallas paper has written a couple of articles and someone always turns up to repeat the same thing Newt is saying: support her if you are anti-choice.

I get conflicting information about Miers from people here who know who she is or have had dealings with her. I’ve been told that if I support keeping Roe v Wade as the law, I should support her nomination.

What I see when I look at Harriet Miers is someone who is Ambitious to the point where she has almost no convictions beyond advancing her own career. The Republicans took over Dallas County, and Miers became a Republican. The Religious Right became power brokers, and Harriet got herself born again, twice. Bush got to the White House, Miers kissed his ass, denigrated herself and her law degree to be his secretary, and another surrogate mother for him.

This is not the CV of a Justice of the SCOTUS. But it’s also not the CV of an idealogue. She’s a cipher – a “Southern Lady of a Certain Age.” Read that as submissive, if you like. Read that as having no real ideas of her own. Read that to mean that she’ll do what she’s told, but with great manners.

What a fucked up situation.