Oh, give me a fucking break! How many people answered that questionaire? And I have seen some really dumb ill-informed opinions expressed about attys, judges, con law, and the ussc. So, I hardly think that bc someone is considered conservative gives their opinion any more weight if any at all.

At the moment, I am listening to Michael Medved, who I wouldn't consider a Miers supporter, tear to pieces the criticisms of Miers.

http://www2.krla870.com/listen/

Bloggers Overwhelmingly Against Miers

Sounds like a NY Times headline in light of the fact that only 49% think it was a bad decision, 34% support its withdrawal and only 34% want the Senate to vote against it. The only question that was over 50% negative was whether this made their view of Bush more favorable. 53%

Bloggers Overwhelmingly Full of Themselves.

A non-scientific poll from inside my head.

Bloggers are a bunch of navel-gazing zeros. Including me. Nice folks, some of them quite smart and others quite funny, but a fairly self-involved bunch. Clubby, you know.

I mean, seriously: who gives a shit what bloggers think about anything? If you say blog to the average person on the street, they'll tut-tut and say your phlegm sounds pretty bad today; it must be the chilly weather.

I think a lot of the hostility at Miers' nomination is simply misdirected anger, anyway. Lots of conservatives were spoiling for a confirmation fight with the Democrats, and what you're seeing is frustrated aggression as much as anything else. I think W. (rightly or wrongly; time will tell) decided that a big messy public fight was not the best way to proceed.

I think a lot of conservatives wanted a justice who had a documented history of conservative judicial philosophy. Well, I know I did.

I don't understand some of the other criticisms of her, like the crony or qualification charges. But the concern in the paragraph above is the whole issue for me, and alone is more than enough to make me opposed. Also, I don't understand the positive case for her.

Monty and Andrea are treating Bloggers like they are a unique species separate from humans.

Bloggers and blogs give a good indication of what the average joe is thinking about the current political issues. It is not much different from a bunch of people getting together and conversing about current events.

> Bloggers Overwhelmingly Against Miers

You left out the subheader:

"Move out of your parents' basements," Miers chides

Uh, what? Bloggers are a pretty good bellwether for the educated and informed demographic since they're, you know, educated and informed. It's a pretty specific demographic, but it's reasonably accurate if you poll it.

I don't doubt that the desire to pick a fight with the Dems is a motivation, but to say it's "simply" that is "simply moronic". Miers is, quite simply, not the best candidate to forward as a nomination. Period. And the "why not the best?" argument is very, very compelling.

Bart:

Bloggers and blogs give a good indication of what the average joe is thinking about the current political issues.

Says who? Did you poll a bunch of "average joes" to find out the median opinion on this, or did you just pull that directly from your ass?

I both underline and boldface my orginal assessment: a bunch of navel-gazing zeros.

Nice zeros, mind you, Bart. You're one of the good ones, and if you were here I'd give you a hail-fellow-well-met handshake. But apart from your willingness to write your thoughts into a webpage for likeminded web surfers to read, your opinion (like mine) carries no more weight than that of someone who does not post their thoughts on the Intarweb.

Okay, rho, I can dig it. But I think you give bloggers too much credit for educated and informed.
Case in point: Ace.

Did you poll a bunch of "average joes" to find out the median opinion on this, or did you just pull that directly from your ass?

Umm, the second one.

Do you really believe that blogger's opinions carry no influence? I disagree, Montgomery.

While I'll admit the bloggers are not policy makers and shapers, I do believe that people pay attention to the comments posted on the Net.

You mentioned polls. I don't know much about gathering accurate statistics but I think a campaign aide can look at a blog that has a lot of traffic and sensible comments and derive from that a bell weather, or a rudder, or, at least, some indication of the general mood of the public.

Monty, I agree with Bart with this clarification: bloggers represent a good cross-section of the part of the public that give a shit. Frankly, sadly, most people don't - please pass a beer and turn on the ballgame. Inasmuch as that's your point, you're right. But no, sorry, that's not a good reason to lay down and ignore the Supreme Court and who gets a seat. Do I have a say? No more than the average joe who calls his Congressman then stands on the streetcorner with a bullhorn trying to convince his fellow citizens to do the same. If you think that's navel-gazing, you're dissing the Republic, and that makes you the zero.

bloggers represent a good cross-section of the part of the public that give a shit.

Very true. And lately, I have come to envy the majority of the public that doesn't give a sh*t.

V and K,

I couldn't agree more. I feel like that ALL the time.

Black Republican:

You misunderstand me. I'm not arguing against giving a shit; the Supreme Court is very much a central battlefield in the so-called "culture wars", and shit-giving is very much necessary if we are ever to get past the judicial-activist lean of the Federal Bench.

My problem is when you say that bloggers are, a priori, somehow privileged shit-givers as opposed to Marian who works at the local diner or Harry who changes the oil in your car. These folks may not be bloggers -- they may not even own a computer at all!, shock! horror! -- but their opinions are often just as reasoned and thoughtful as yours or mine. For reasons of their own -- rarely due to lack of talent, believe me -- they do not choose to write their thoughts down for others to read in public fora.

There is an implied elitism here that disturbs me. Part of what makes me a conservative is that I don't just assume the general common-sense and practicality of most Americans; I rely upon it. I do not assume (as you and Bart seem to) that the average inhabitant of Jesusland is an addled and uninformed blob. If I misunderstand you, I apologize, but this is the sense I get. Am I wrong?

Montague, that is not at all what I'm saying. Alls I'm saying is that blogs are an excellent place to see and hear what people like Marian and Harry are thinking. And those who are not paying attention to this new vehicle, (the blog), for opinions will lose a great opportunity to get a leg up on their political opponents.

The average joes now have a voice, a microphone, and doesn't have to be satisfied with muttering --from their couches or kitchen tables -- his/her opinions while watching Dan Blather's newscast.

What better way to get your finger on the pulse of people who actually vote than reading a good blog?

Bart,

I'm not saying that blogs aren't valuable sources of information; they are. But how many political blogs are doing real analysis, and can bring the specialist knowledge of law and legal affairs to bear on it? Volokh, Beldar, Powerline, Insty, and Hewitt; but they're all over the map, and don't really add much to the argument. The rest are little better than the newspaper opinionators -- people who don't know the law very well trying to come up with trenchant legal commentary for the few weeks around every SCOTUS nom when it's newsworthy.

I dunno. I'm not even sure what point I'm trying to make here, except to say that the "average joe" in America isn't quite the fat-head that the pundit class seems to think he is.

Monty, it's pretty clear which side you're on. If you want to give lawyers and law professors special status, the anti-Miers ratio goes to something like 20:1. You've named pretty much her only defenders, while leaving out many prominent bloggers on the other side like Althouse, Bainbridge, Southern Appeal, et al.

There were 79 responses to the survey. That is 79 people who reach a limited audience. And it is safe to say that a bloggers audience often does not agree with the blogger. So pardon me if I am not impressed. I find the lead on this article intellectually dishonest. Frankly, it's the kind of lead I would expect on a BDS story.

Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll....

You know when you're cleaning out your navel with a Q-tip, and some of the cotton comes loose and you have to get another Q-tip to dig it out, and then some of that cotton comes loose and gets jammed down in there, until finally you have a tennis-ball-sized wad of cotton stuck in your belly button? I hate when that happens.

Classic.

Andrea, you can't see the trees through the forest, can you?

When the wad of cotton remnants gets large enough that is the precice and easiest time to extricate it. And it's time to extricate that wad of fluff known as Harriet Miers from the nomination process. She has reached critical mass and is large enough for an easy extraction.

(Wow, there's actually a little clever wisdom in there, somewhere.)

"(Wow, there's actually a little clever wisdom in there, somewhere.)"

No there isn't.

This poll is at least as valid as the poll the Washington Times reported on today that said that the rank and file Republicans actually favor the Miers nomination. Note that those rank and file members are mostly composed of local Republican committee presidents and such - the ones who drum up local candidates and show up for Rotary meetings and the like. They're no more "the common voter" than bloggers, yet their opinion gets Big newspaper coverage.

I believe the unstated point of the poll is that bloggers are becoming (and in some cases either already are, or are becoming) people who can not only publicize political issues, but who can also shape it. We already know that Washington politicos follow blogs with some regularity. Tihs seems to me to be indicative of the unrest the folks who actually do the fighting in the trenches think of the nomination.

Go see what some of the rank and file have to say about the Meir hysteria among conservatives.

We already know that Washington politicos follow blogs with some regularity

I think they follow the "high profile" ones (Malkin, Powerline, Wonkette) - which don't really represent the full spectrum of derangment and depravity available for example,..........here.