Say "Fetus", Scully

When Matthew Scully writes in defense of Harriet Miers in the New York Times ("The Harriet Miers I Know", 10-14-05), it’s easy to see his respect for Harriet and her work ethic. And if his description is true, easy to imagine Harriet as a selfless White House servant without personal dreams or ambition. What is not easy is to understand why these traits are sufficient to qualify a person to the court, and why we should believe a guy like Scully anyway.

Author of the thorough and persuasive animal-rights book "Dominion", Scully seems the least likely person to have been a member of the Bush White House. One has to wonder…is there a greater example of self-hatred than a vegetarian Republican? Perhaps. Yet Scully, whose passion for the non-violent stewardship of animals seems paramount, is entirely at ease among the NASCAR party--the tough-guy, gun toting, NRA loving, meat killing, factory farming, barbecue crowd. It’s almost impossible to imagine how these opposing attitudes can be reconciled.

Perhaps his comment regarding Miers gives a clue.

"If anyone can be counted on to pause in deliberations over abortion cases, for example, and politely draw attention to small details like the authority of Congress and of state legislatures, or the interests of the child waiting to be born, it will be [Miers]."

Apparently, his compassion for animals extends to children waiting to be born. They are not embryos, zygotes, blastocysts or fetuses. They are children waiting to be born. As if they are already people, waiting to go from one room to the next. Anyone who has ever lived with a dog knows that dogs are people in a certain, limited respect. And for that, I respect Scully’s passion for animal rights. But leave it to a former Bush speechwriter to inject fantasy into a discussion about reality. The fact is, embryos are not people, and don’t yet possess any of the hallmarks of personhood. They don't wait. They aren't children. They are potential people, and we don’t call cucumbers "unborn pickles". The phrase "children waiting to be born" is a manipulative farce, worthy of a schoolyard idiot. What’s next—calling sperm "half-children waiting to be born?"

Perhaps Scully is trying to reach the Bush base—irrational fundamentalists who hope to force our country to live within the confines of their superstitions—by suggesting that Miers will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow individual states to create their own tribal regions of bigotry, intolerance and injustice. Scully, after all, may believe that the Bible is the One True Word of God, which would rule out the possibility of having a rational debate with him. Or perhaps he is just trying to cheer up his former White House editor, Miers. Either way, Scully seems willing to ignore the meat-friendliness of the Republican party in favor of their stance on abortion, a fatal inconsistency.

If hard work, selflessness, a lack of grandiosity, commitment to superiors and an unwavering attention to detail were the attributes needed for a Supreme Court nomination, there might be millions of Americans qualified. But the Supreme Court nominee shouldn’t be one in a hundred. The nominee should be one in a hundred-million. What do you bet Karl Rove picked John Roberts, but with Rove lately preparing for his grand jury testimony, President Bush picked Harriet Miers. Leave it to an unqualified President to find an unqualified nominee.

Sorry Scully. I'm not buying it.