Re: Miers\' qualification
Miers is quite qualified.
The only thing that really matters is her intelligence, her ability to write opinions, and negotiate with the others on the court.
There is a myth that you need federal court experience before moving to the Supreme Court, but the truth is, the Circuit Courts have often just been used as a holding station for potential Supreme Court nominees.
Do you know how long justices served on the Circuit Court before moving up to the Supreme Court?
Souter: 1 month
Thomas: 1 year
Roberts: 2 years
Scalia: 4 years
Stevens: 5 years
O'Connor: none
Rehnquist: none
Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer served longer, but in the case of Breyer and Ginsburg the reason they were stuck there is because they were appointed by Carter but then had to wait out the 12 years of Reagan/Bush before another Democrat took office. Extra time spent waiting to be elevated does not equal additional real experience.
Being on the lower court doesn't mean that much.
Miers has experience as an elected politician, a trial lawyer, an ABA leader, and various government lawyer and advisor jobs. She is as qualified as any of the others on the court. Read their biographies and you will see that other than their brief lower court stays, the others mostly worked as trial lawyers and government lawyers for their entire careers - just the same thing that Miers did.
Miers is a stealth candidate because she has no paper trail, but her actual experience is equal to any of the others when they were added to the court.
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