Postmortem

National Review surveys its handiwork. Of course, conservative critics of the Miers nomination were just doing their job, but I wonder what might have happened if they hadn't led the assault. There was an assessment begun by George Will that Miers couldn't do the job and it spread in the way that liberal claims that "Bush lied" did. Pretty soon it was common "knowledge." And that's all Bush's fault for being blindsided. Even if she gets confirmed now . . . Even if she turns out to be a good justice, the relationship between Bush and conservatives will never be the same.

There is something seriously wrong with MSM and not just those with a liberal bias. They shoot first and ask questions later, when they ask questions at all. The fundamental criterion and judgment was made by Will: She's not one of the leading lights of American jurisprudence. She's not one of us, the BosWash elite.

What concerns me is that I suspect that someone who sees himself as one of the leading lights is not as likely to feel the need for restraint that is so lacking in our courts these days. A little humility might do a lot more than all the brilliance at the National Review.