Once again, Bush proves that personal loyalty means more than experience, as he looks beyond the Arabian Horse Association for his nominees and decides to say “screw it” and nominate his friend from the Texas state lottery. Here’s what Slate had to say earlier this year :

White House Counsel Harriet Miers has been vetter-in-chief of the Supreme Court candidates. What if Bush selects her over them, in the Dick Cheney tradition? Before she got her current job, Miers was assistant to the president and his staff secretary. She was the person who knew where all the paper in the White House was coming and going. She never talked to reporters. She came with Bush from Texas, where she was chair of the state lottery commission and the first woman president of the Texas State Bar. But Miers isn’t a skilled Supreme Court advocate. She has no reputation outside the insular Bush circle. Firepower-wise, she looks like a big gamble.

Ahhh…gotta love that lack of a paper trail. Like I said earlier, however, it’s all about the loyalty. In this case, Bush really owes her a favor :

The Bushies’ concern began while he was running for a second term as governor. A hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers was retained to investigate the issue; state records show Miers was paid $19,000 by the Bush gubernatorial campaign. She and other aides quickly identified a problem–rumors that Bush had help from his father in getting into the National Guard back in 1968.

Of course, covering the President’s ass isn’t the same as, say, having any judicial experience. But then again, George has never let qualifications get in the way of a good nomination.