George Will goes off the reservation

I must admit that the best part of Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court is watching the famous GOP discipline disintegrate. George Will is the latest right-winger to say there is no obligation to confirm her:

It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's "argument" for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to, for several reasons.

Ok, Will has just said Bush cannot be trusted. I'll wait until that sinks in. Here's why:

He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their pre-presidential careers, and this president particularly is not disposed to such reflections.

Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Miers's nomination resulted from the president's careful consultation with people capable of such judgments. If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers's name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists.

In addition, the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution. The forfeiture occurred March 27, 2002, when, in a private act betokening an uneasy conscience, he signed the McCain-Feingold law expanding government regulation of the timing, quantity and content of political speech. The day before the 2000 Iowa caucuses he was asked -- to ensure a considered response from him, he had been told in advance that he would be asked -- whether McCain-Feingold's core purposes are unconstitutional. He unhesitatingly said, "I agree." Asked if he thought presidents have a duty, pursuant to their oath to defend the Constitution, to make an independent judgment about the constitutionality of bills and to veto those he thinks unconstitutional, he briskly said, "I do."

As we say back home, "Light dawns on Marblehead." The right-wing is admitting that their leader is not smart. Not even close to being smart. Even more, they are deathly afraid Miers is going to be another Souter.

The emperor not only has no clothes, he's not even a real conservative.

I'm shocked, just shocked I tell you.

UPDATE: If you like to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude, here is a nice neat package of imploding conservatives.