Harriet Miers, Stalinist

Miers Backed Race, Sex Set-Asides blares the WaPo headline, and that should signal the death knell for her nomination.

As president of the State Bar of Texas, Harriet Miers wrote that "our legal community must reflect our population as a whole," and under her leadership the organization embraced racial and gender set-asides and set numerical targets to achieve that goal.

How about "our legal community should reflect the the best legal talent available, period." I guess not. What this demonstrates is that Miers is either not a conservative, or is more interested in appearances than principle.

White House spokesman Jim Dyke said that Miers's actions on the bar do not indicate a view on how Miers might rule..."The best I can tell, this was a private-sector initiative to increase diversity, which is not the same thing as a government mandate of quotas," he said.

No, it's a damn good indication. The legality of affirmative action is based on the presumption that "diversity" is a compelling state interest - that a multi-ethnic environment is so magically beneficial that it overrides all other concerns.

Miers clearly buys into this doggerel: "we are strongest capitalizing on the benefits of our diversity," she gurgled. No, Harriet, we are strongest when we capitalize on the most talented people available - a cohort in which you manifestly do not belong.