I wrote this while sitting in an airport Friday afternoon.

Miers did the honorable thing and the good thing; I can’t believe that she was likely to pass congressional scrutiny, I don’t believe that she was particularly well-qualified for the position, and I do believe that she would have been a negative to President Bush’s legacy. People would not watch her on the court and be disposed to remember Bush’s judicial nominees well; and, honestly, when it comes to his judicial picks, this would have been an unhappy quirk of fate.

That is, he’s done well with nominations to this point both by putting forth people who were qualified, moderate conservatives with the intellectual background to give them legitimacy where they serve.

I expect the next choice—even if it does make the expected bow to Supreme Court gender quotas—to be much better.

Looking back on this, I can’t help but be pleased with Bush’s do-over pick. I won’t say that I’m happy he didn’t pick a woman for the seat, but I can say that I’m happy he didn’t make an obvious quota pick. Obvious and exceptional qualification is the thing, not the gender or the skin pigment.

Amazing how a few days makes a post out outdated; our news cycle is ridiculously quick anymore. In fact, there are times that I think it runs a little too fast, giving us too much of an opportunity to react from the gut instead of the brain.

But what do I know? I’m just some former bartender…