Bush has nominated white house counsel Harriet Miers to the supreme court, and the reaction from the political windbags (left and right) has been....

Harriet who?

Followed closely by suspicion and disappointment (from both left and right).

I don't claim to have been following this to any great degree, I'm not the slightest bit surprised that Bush would select a relative unknown from his own staff. The actions of this administration have shown over and over that the one thing that Bush values more than anything else--above politics, above ideology, above partisanship, and even above competence--is personal loyalty.

If you're personally loyal to the President, then almost nothing else matters, unless you become an actual and serious liability (like Mike Brown).

So Miers has the two most important qualities for a supreme court justice: she is personally loyal to Bush, and she can probably get through the Senate (unlike Alberto "Torture is OK" Gonzales).

The only thing surprising is that so many people are surprised.

ASIDE: It will be interesting to see just how loyal Bush's supreme court picks are once they no longer need Bush for anything. One of the beautiful things about the way the Supreme Court works is that the justices, once on the court, no longer need anyone else for employment or advancement. This makes the court remarkably free from the politics and corruption which tend to infect the other branches--often to the frustration of politicians.