Disclaimer for Right Blogistan: Don't Blame Us.

Billmon says you all are a little riled right about now.

Just so you understand it, we don't like Harriet E. Miers either.

There's a lot of things going on we both don't like.

To repeat a theme sounded often right here: the Liberal vs. Conservative beat that the Republican and Democratic leadership keep drumming is a lot of noise to distract you from what's really happening to the country.

For that matter, virtually every Democrat I know (qualification: that makes less than $100,000/year) is royally pissed over things like this:

The expected political brawl over President Bush’s second Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers might not ever take place – because it was a powerful Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who had urged her selection.

The senator from Nevada first hinted that he thought highly of Miers shortly before Bush announced the nomination of John Roberts for a seat on the Court.

Bush phoned Reid to tout Roberts, and Reid took the opportunity to tell the president that had had enjoyed working with Miers, the White House legal counsel, during the search for a nominee.

A few days earlier, Reid had met with Miers and suggested ways to avoid a divisive confirmation process, according to a report published in August in The New Yorker magazine...

Both Roberts and Miers are terrible choices for the future of America, but great choices for the future of the Company.

A good rundown of Meirs' complicity in some of the dirtiest deals of Dear Leader's career can be found here.

Let's skim through them.

*Harriet Miers headed the law firm Locke, Liddell & Sapp which has been linked to TRMPAC and questionable donations related to Tom DeLay... and here and here.

*Alberto Gonzales was recommended to Bush as counsel in the Texas Governorship by Harriet Miers, who has replaced Gonzales as White House counsel. Referred to by Bush as a "pit bull in size 6 shoes'', Miers is a former President of Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell and former chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission. Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell have given at least $65,000 to Bush campaigns and are major backers of tort reform. One case involved a unique law - passed under former Gov. George Bush - that blocked Texas consumers from recovering $6 billion in overcharges on car loans and allowed dealers to keep kickbacks secret. Two consumer groups have called on the Texas Legislature to repeal it. Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell were defendants of the litigation, which included auto dealers in Texas. Miers was also Chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission and responsible for a chain of events involving GTech, which ran the Texas Lottery, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes, and accusations of kick-backs and illegal contracts. Yes, that Ben Barnes, who says he helped George Bush get into the National Guard. His original deposition on that subject was given in 1999, during this Texas Lottery Commission investigation, and has been permanently sealed.

*Miers is a Dallas-based lawyer and chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission. The former president of the State Bar of Texas and Dallas City Council member has done legal work for Bush and his political committee. As chair of the lottery commission, Miers came under fire when former commission executive director Lawrence Littwin sued the state's lottery operator, GTECH, for allegedly pressuring Miers to fire Littwin. Littwin and his attorneys have suggested throughout the proceedings that GTECH was allowed to keep its state lottery contract in exchange for former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes' silence. Barnes, a former GTECH lobbyist, stated under oath that he helped George W. Bush enlist in the Texas Air National Guard as an alternative to going to Vietnam 31 years ago.

*Was Harriet Miers the one who scoured and scrubbed the President's National Guard record?
...Bush Aides Possibly Altered National Guard Records To Conceal Grounding and Missed Duty...They paid "hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers" $19,000 to review the records. According to Newsweek, one result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard despite low qualifications and a long waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath that he helped Bush.

*Harriet Miers contributed "$5,000 to the Bush-Cheney Recount Fund in the post-election struggle that finally sealed his victory over Al Gore."

This is the moderate that Harry Reid suggested Bush select.

The Company couldn't have done better themselves. But who are we kidding. Reid, like Clinton, has become awfully close to Citigroup since those mean Chinese started picking on Citigroup. And look who his top contributors are: casinos, Citigroup, and the Petroleum Marketers Association.

With friends like Reid, progressives need no enemies, but I think we have them anyway.