Alexander Hamilton opposes Harriet Miers

The ever vigilant David Sirota points out that over 200 years ago Founding Father Alexander Hamilton wrote about the nomination of Harriet Miers. Sirrota directs us to The Federalist Papers . specifically #76 by Alexander Hamilton.

"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment..."

This sounds like he's talking about Miers already but he gets more specific:

"[The President] would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure."

If that doesn't describe the Miers' nomination I don't know what does.

Sirota translates:

Let me translate: the framers thought that the mere existence of the U.S. Senate's advise and consent powers should deter a President from nominating someone like Miers in the first place. The incredibly arrogant Bush administration has shown us that's not the case. Even so, the message is still clear: the framers wanted the U.S. Senate to reject nominees like Miers, just like they rejected Democratic nominees like Abe Fortas on the same grounds of cronyism. They wanted, in short, a truly independent judiciary - not one that serves at the pleasure of any one President.

If there was any doubt about the hubris of the Bush administration this should put it to rest.