The Right Coast

October 08, 2005
 
NRO Corner refuses to link to RC
By Tom Smith

Is this fair? To allude to a post and not link to it? Can't Corner Readers judge for themselves if I am too harsh? Are they not adults?

I quote, since pin point linking to the corner doesn't seem to work:

HEARINGS [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Two thoughts on how they might go, which run somewhat counter to each other. First, the White House has dealt with discontent on the right by playing up Miers's evangelicalism and pro-life position. Doesn't that create a problem for her in the hearings? Especially when the administration flipped in one week from its view that a nominee's religion and stance on abortion are irrelevant? (There are plausible arguments for both the position the administration took on Roberts and the one it is taking on Miers, but it would at least be tricky to make a plausible argument for both positions at the same time.) She'll have to reassure the left without alienating the Right. It's possible, but it's a tougher assignment than Roberts faced.

Second: Miers's critics, by sometimes overplaying her lack of qualifications, have lowered the bar for her to seem impressive. When a critic compares her to a dog, it's at least as unhelpful for the critics' side as when a defender calls the critics sexists.

So the substance of her views may end up being a bigger problem at the hearings than her qualifications will be.

I think that's me, and I don't even get a link out of it. I'm not sure that's blogo-legitimate. LWJ says she thinks it was kind of mean as well. So Ramesh is saying if Miers comes across as smarter than Barney, she will seem qualified? Well, it beats me. I defend the Barney trope, however, because I think it was rather a clever and vivid way to stress the utter opacity of the nominee (who knows what she thinks?) and the cronyism of the nomination, as well as the lack of qualifications, among other points. In their much graver ways, as befits much bigger dogs, Will and Krauthammer were very harsh as well. As for me, I say, it's not the size of the blog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the blog.