Hold on to your hats

At 8 AM EDT, President Bush is expected to announce his nominee for Supreme Court Justice to replace the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor.  His choice?  Harriet Miers, White House counsel – according to a "senior administration official." We’ll know for sure in less than an hour.

Update: It’s official. 

Who is Harriet Miers?

Harriet Ellan Miers is White House counsel and was formerly President Bush’s personal lawyer in Texas. She first served in the White House as staff secretary and was deputy chief of staff before she was named counsel upon Alberto Gonzales’ transition to attorney general.

[…]

Born and raised in Dallas, Miers earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics and her law degree from Southern Methodist University. In addition to her legal career, she served one term on the Dallas City Council.

Miers, 60, broke barriers for women throughout her career. She reportedly was the first woman hired by the prestigious Dallas law firm Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, where she became a successful commercial litigator. She also became the first female president of the Dallas Bar Association in 1985 and was the first woman elected president of the Texas Bar Association in 1992.

Miers met Bush in the 1980s, according to published reports, and she was counsel for his 1994 campaign for governor. He appointed her chair of the Texas Lottery Commission in 1995.

Miers then was president of Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell and co-managing partner of Locke Liddell & Sapp before she joined the White House in 2001.

In addition, Miers was named one of the Top 50 Most Influential Lawyers by the National Law Journal in 1998, and she received numerous other awards from groups including the Dallas Women Lawyers Association, the Anti-Defamation League and the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers.

Blogger reax: John Hawkins: "This is undoubtedly the worst decision of Bush’s entire presidency so far."  

(I should also note that in response to a blogger poll John took last week on blogger choices for the next USSC nominee, I responded that I didn’t want to see the President pick Alberto Gonzales or Harriet Miers.  Oh well :(  )

Jack Kelly is disappointed in the President’s pick.

Confirm Them says "Mr. President, you’ve got some explaining to do."

Jay at Stop the ACLU has a list of conservative blogger reactions and the consensus seems to be that almost everyone is disappointed.

Michelle Malkin: "Utterly Underwhelmed."  She also has a link roundup of blogger reax.

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