Harriet Miers: Grammar Maven?

Of course this has nothing to do with anything, because once she's on the Court, Harriet Miers will hire totally smart law clerks from really hot schools like Yale and SMU to do her writing for her--but still, this Stephen Bainbridge post debunking the idea that Miers is a detail-oriented grammar maven is pretty fun.

I've always been a little suspicious of the stories about what a nit-picker Miers was in the White House. On October 4, the Washington Post reported that, "as Bush's staff secretary, she was known to correct spelling, grammar and even punctuation errors in memos to the president." If Miers really had a Rain Man knack for grammar the way some people do, then that would be one thing. Sure, it would make her look like a bit of a micromanager, but that's not the worst thing in the world.

However, now that we can see for ourselves that she's not really a grammar maven, it suggests that perhaps she was more of a passive-aggressive, petty bureaucrat who was always trying to impose her will, even in small ways, on materials other people were sending through her to her boss. If you've ever been in government, you know that this is exactly the type of appointee who succeeds at the special assistant and staff-secretary level. It is not, perhaps, the type of temperament you'd want for the SCOTUS.