Don't expect the Senate Democrats to put up a fight on Miers. On a blogger conference call last week with Sen. Harry Reid (I wrote about it here), he told us he asked the President to consider Harriet Miers. (Update: Here are his exact comments, thanks to Sam Rosenfeld at Tapped, who also was on the call. Sen. Reid's comments were in response to a question I asked him about his thoughts on who Bush would pick for the next nominee.)

I personally think that I would like to see someone who has not had judicial experience. I think that we need somebody to go on that Court in the mold of the people on the Berger court, people who have not spent their lifetime holed up in some office writing opinions and reading briefs. One of the people that’s being talked about is Harriet Miers, his own lawyer. At the meeting we had with the president last week, we were in the office he has there; I was there, Frist was there, Leahy was there, and Specter was there, plus Andy Card and the vice president. I said, “The vice president got here in a very unusual way. He was chosen by you to find a candidate to be your vice president. You liked the person in charge of finding a candidate better than the people he chose.” I said, “I think that rather than rather than looking at the people your lawyer’s recommending, pick her.” ...

by TChris

Commentary on the president’s decision to elevate his White House Counsel to a Supreme Court seat begins to fill the web. Lyle Denniston argues that Harriet Miers “will have the burden of proving that she is qualified to join the Court and was not chosen on the basis of cronyism. That could pose a serious challenge.” Joel Achenbach explains why Miers is qualified for the job:

1. She's a lawyer.

2. She's tight with Dubya.

3. She works just a few feet from Bush and thus saved him from the hassle of a protracted search.

4. She has never been a judge and thus has no record that might generate problems in a confirmation hearing.

David Bernstein at The Volokh Conspiracy agrees that Miers is a "well-connected insider" who is likely to favor executive power (at least for this chief executive) over the other branches of government, but also notes that the nomination may be opposed by members of the president's base because Miers lacks the anti-abortion track record they thought they'd been promised. And Prof. Doug Berman laments Miers’ lack of background in criminal law and sentencing issues.

by Last Night in Little Rock

NOLA.com reports today that NOPD Police Chief Ray Compass told friends and fellow officers immediately after announcing his retirement that Mayor Ray Nagin forced him out.

Two days ago, we reported here that the retirement would take place after a "transition period." The NOLA.com article makes it clear that Compass is out. CNN tonight had his replacement on tonight.

Under the headline: "Chief fired after heated confrontation / 'He had tears in his eyes. He didn't want to go.'"

by TChris

Update: Recent video, via CNN, can be accessed here. Earlier video, via Crooks and Liars, can be accessed here.

.....

In the aftermath of Katrina, some opportunists took advantage of chaos to enrich themselves by theft, while others, desperate to survive, took food and water and other supplies that enhanced their chances of staying alive. The media have done a less than spectacular job of sorting out the two groups.

Starting to come to light, however, is a group of opportunists who were charged with the duty of enforcing the law: members of the New Orleans police department.

by TChris

No surprise here: John Roberts is the new Chief Justice, confirmed by a vote of 78-22. He'll be sworn in quickly so he can preside over the opening day of the new term, commencing (as always) on the first Monday of October.

Attention now turns to Justice O'Connor's successor. The president's nominee should be announced within days. A photo gallery of some of the contenders for the job is here.

by TChris

Human Rights Watch reports that the sheriff's department in New Orleans left hundreds of inmates locked in a city jail as flood waters began to rise.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

More than 500 inmates are missing. Were any of them left to drown?

by TChris

Did the Bush administration learn from its disaster management mistakes? Having botched its response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA's work after Hurricane Rita should have been nearly flawless. Should have been.

Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat.

The midday closing of the Houston disaster relief center came as officials in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita criticized FEMA's response to the storm, with one calling for a commission to examine the emergency response.

by Last Night in Little Rock

TChris noted yesterday the White House's conservation message. In an incredible piece of irony, Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan urged Americans to save fuel by eliminating unnecessary trips during the President's seventh day trip to the Gulf Coast for a photo op as noted in today's NY Times. He noted that the Presidential motorcade had fewer vehicles in it, all for a trip of a few hundred feet to meet with local officials. That was an example of the White House conserving.

by Last Night in Little Rock

In FEMA's haste to play catch-up and provide housing in New Orleans, it contracted with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships for six months, and did the deal overnight, as reported in today's Washington Post.

The problem with the deal with Carnival was a $236M no-bid contract that effectively paid Carnival twice the per person cost of a cruise, with full crew and entertainment, and the ships never leave port. Yet, the ships are only half occupied, so Carnival reaps even greater profits. Do the math: that's four times the cost of a cruise. Without a full crew, the profit is even greater.

Makes me wonder if anybody at Carnival was a big Republican supporter, or were they just incredibly lucky?

by TChris

A president who jets to the gulf coast seven times in search of photo ops should expect to be lampooned when he urges Americans to be better “conservers” by avoiding unnecessary trips. President Bush has taken heat on Air America all day for promising that federal employees will avoid wasteful travel, all the while traveling on Air Force One for no useful purpose. Dan Froomkin joins the fun:

Bush, who is not known for his strict adherence to grammar when speaking extemporaneously, was unusually unquotable yesterday. Here's a topic Bush knows a lot about: Oil. But his remarks were full of fragment sentences, as well as small-bore statistics and industry lingo.

David Webber at The Nation has a new article on Judge John Roberts' 1985 AIDS memo to then President Ronald Reagan that Roberts wrote in conjunction with a major announcement Reagan was about to make. According to the article, he refused to disavow the memo when being interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here's a snippet:

Five days before the press conference, [Roberts] reviewed the presidential briefing materials and recommended deletion of a sentence encapsulating the CDC's conclusion: "As far as our best scientists have been able to determine, AIDS virus is not transmitted through casual or routine contact." In a memorandum, the Assistant Counsel to the President explained, "I do not think we should have the President taking a position on a disputed scientific issue of this sort. There is much to commend the view that we should assume AIDS can be transmitted through casual or routine contact, as is true with many viruses, until it is demonstrated that it cannot be, and no scientist has said AIDS definitely cannot be so transmitted."

by Last Night in Little Rock

CNN just reported that NOLA Police Supt. Eddie Compass is retiring as soon as a transition can be established. CNN.com reports today that 15% of the NOLA PD was AWOL, and Compass has determined that a special tribunal will be established to determine their fates.

Update: Wednesday's Times-Picayune and NY Times have the story.