Bush's Opportunity

Harriet Miers's withdrawl from the confirmation process for the Supreme Court was welcomed news today for me and millions of other people across the country who were concerned about her ability to go straight to the nation's highest court for a lifetime appointment without so much as fifteen minutes practicing constitutional law. Had she been a state judge, a federal appellate judge, solicitor general, or anybody else whose job involves constitutional law, her appointment would not have been such an utter and total failure for President Bush. This, of course, is not Miers's fault, it is the President's. If he really thought Miers would make a Supreme Court Justice, why not have named her to the federal bench a couple of years ago, like he did John Roberts; or why not make her Solicitor General or Deputy Attorney General? Well, all of that is past now, but he is back to square one, and he has a tremendous opportunity to completely undo all of the damage that has been done to his administration this year by Katrina, Miers, the failure of Social Security reform, the Rove/Libby/DeLay legal investigations, and the fact that he has not pushed any number of other reform agendas promised during the 2004 campaign.

Bush must do several things to rebound from the last 10 months of political hell.

1. The President absolutely has to appoint somebody like Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, J. Michael Luttig, or Michael McConnell to the court. If he does, regardless of the reaction from the left, every single rank and file conservative/republican in the country will instantly rally to his cause. Let us remember that Tom Daschle was defeated in 2004, if for no other reason than that he was an obstructionist on judicial nominations. Conservatives will in fact fight, and they will, based on history, win. If the President bunts again, and gives us Alberto Gonzales, then the President might as well begin tenuring his resignation, because everything he has done for the last 5 years will instantly fall apart, because everybody who worked hard for him in 2000 and 2004 will desert him without hesitation.

2. The President needs to formulate an actual plan for Social Security Reform, and send it to Congress before Christmas. Obviously, Congress will not have time to act on it, but at least then, the President can begin re-selling the idea of reform. Only this time, he needs to talk about the ownership society, and the benefits of real investment rather than blabbering on about hypothetical benefit cuts.

3. Bush should fire Andrew Card yesterday. Card, according to most news reports, was behind the Miers nomination. That is reason enough. But beyond that, it is just time for some new blood at the top levels of leadership in this White House. Things are getting too sloppy, and this is from an administration that for the first few years ran one of the tightest ships in recent memory.

4. Bush should further rally his base by moving on extending the 2003 tax cuts, as well as formulating an actual plan for genuine tax reform, taking into account all of the work that Connie Mack's Presidential Commission has done recently.

5. The President must point out all of the good that is occurring in Iraq, and he's simply not doing it. The passage of the new constitution, coupled with extraordinary turnout in the referendum is more than satisfactory performance for a country that has never known anything but harsh dictatorial governments throughout their entire multi-thousand year existence.

Hopefully we will see all 5 of these things occur, and in short order. He might turn a beleaguered 5th year into an oustandingly unprecedented second term.