Harriet Miers: "Mmm... Burger..."

This is just plain embarrassing:

In an initial chat with Harriet Miers, according to several people with knowledge of the exchange, Senator Patrick Leahy asked her to name her favorite Supreme Court justices. Miers responded with "Warren" -- which led Leahy to ask her whether she meant former Chief Justice Earl Warren, a liberal icon, or former Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative who voted for Roe v. Wade. Miers said she meant Warren Burger, the sources said.

An excellent explanation of why this is so mortifying, for so many reasons, is provided by Jim Lindgren, whose reaction is pretty much the same as A3G's when she heard the news. (Professor Lindgren also offers some juicy -- and embarrassing -- nuggets of gossip about Chief Justice Burger.)

(Gavel bangs: Orin Kerr; Jewdicious.)

Comments

[Flex]

In this WaPo article, Leahy backs away from the version of the story initially reported in the press. The salient portion:

A brief version of the exchange [between Leahy and Miers about her favorite SCOTUS luminaries] appeared in a Post story on Friday, and neither the White House nor Leahy's office raised concerns about it. While preparing a story for Sunday that again recounted the exchange, a reporter asked White House officials about the anecdote. Again, there were no objections.

But during an appearance Sunday on the ABC show "This Week," Leahy said he could not recall Miers having first said "Warren," although he reiterated that she named Burger as one of the justices she admires. "Well, that story's not really all that accurate," Leahy said when asked about the published account. Afterward, the White House said it agreed with Leahy's version of the conversation.

[Bill R]

Thanks for the fun blog.

FYI, Boston media-critic/academic Dan Kennedy quotes the following regarding the Soon-to-be-Honorable? Miers, her qualifications such as they may be, and The Elect.

"Friends Like This"

Boston lawyer Kevin P. Martin, a former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, offers a novel argument as to why we shouldn't worry about White House counsel Harriet Miers' dubious credentials: Being a Supreme Court justice isn't all that hard. I'm not making this up. Writing in the Boston Globe, Martin asserts:

'The qualities needed by a Supreme Court justice are not necessarily those needed by an advocate or scholar.'

It continues ...

[Byron]

Is it less embarassing? From what I have read, Warren Burger was a vain and pompous man who was a terrible administrator. He tried to remake the Supreme Court, even the actual building itself, into his own style, and in the process, infuriated everyone from the staff to the clerks to the Justices. In fact, the lead sentence in an article in the September 6, 2005 New York Times stated, "As a Supreme Court law clerk to William H. Rehnquist decades ago, John G. Roberts Jr. learned how not to be chief justice." Warren Burger was that bad.

[Flex]

There's an alternate (and less embarrassing) version of the story here:

http://bench.nationalreview.com/archives/078890.asp