Balkinization  

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

It all depends on what you mean by the word "qualified"

JB

From the Washington Post:
"I know her heart. She knows exactly the kind of judge I'm looking for," Bush said at a morning news conference, noting that she had helped conduct the search that led to the appointment of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. She will be "exactly" what he is looking for, Bush said several times.

Asked by a reporter if she was "the most qualified" person he could find in the country, he said, "Yes, otherwise I would not have" named her.


You see, the word "qualified" means something different than you think it does. "Qualified" means that the nominee meets President Bush's requirements for a Justice, i.e., that she is the sort of person that Bush himself would choose. Almost by definition, then, Miers is eminently "qualified," and we know this because Bush in fact did choose her.

By the same irrefutable logic we can conclude that the Bush tax cuts will "pay for themselves," the deficit is "under control," the Administration's response to Katrina was a "success," and the war in Iraq was "justified" because of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction."


Comments:

And DOJ won't provide Congress with the all-important March 14, 2003 OLC memo about coercive interrogation -- in which OLC apparently explains why DoD could ignore the UCMJ and other statutes -- on the ground that "non-public OLC opinions are not disclosed outside the Executive branch."

See end of this post:

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/09/silver-linings-or-strange-but-true.html
 

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