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President Bush is defending his choice of White House Counsel Harriet
Miers to be the next Supreme Court justice.
Her nomination this past week was criticized by some in the president's
Republican Party, who question the former-Democratic lawyer's conservative
credentials.
Ms. Miers has never been a judge, and has spent
most of her career in corporate litigation
. She does not have a wide collection of legal
opinions on Constitutional issues indicating where she stands on
politically-divisive social topics, including abortion.
In his weekly radio address, President Bush tried to reassure
conservatives that Ms. Miers understands the restrained and modest role of
judges to interpret laws as written, not as he or she might wish they were
written.
"I chose Harriet Miers for the Court both because of her
accomplishments, and because I know her character and her judicial
philosophy," said President Bush. "Harriet Miers will be the type of judge
I said I would nominate: a good conservative judge. She shares my belief
that judges should strictly interpret the Constitution and laws, not
legislate from the bench."
President Bush says her work as White House counsel has involved
complex matters of constitutional law, serving as the chief legal advisor
during regular meetings of the National Security Council and handling
sensitive issues of relations between the White House and Congress.
While some Republican senators have expressed concerns about Ms. Miers,
none has yet vowed to vote against her. Once senators get to know her and
her views, President Bush says, she will be confirmed.
"When she goes before the Senate, I am confident that all Americans
will see what I see every day: Harriet Miers is a woman of intelligence,
strength and conviction," he said. "And when she is confirmed by the
Senate, I am confident that she will leave a lasting mark on the Supreme
Court, and will be a justice who makes all Americans proud."
In the Democratic radio address, Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro
criticized the Bush administration for failing to act on more than 7,000
complaints of petroleum price gouging after Hurricane Katrina damaged
refineries along the Gulf Coast.
She says Republicans have given huge tax breaks to oil and gas
companies, while rolling back environmental laws unrelated to record high
gas prices.
"Americans deserve to know why oil company profits continue to
skyrocket, as families and small businesses suffer from high gas prices,"
said Rosa DeLauro.
Congresswoman DeLauro says Democrats want the government to do more to
encourage hybrid vehicles, increase fuel efficiencies and invest in
hydrogen fuel cell technology. | 
