Perplexed by This Pick (Harriet Miers)

Perplexed by This Pick
Washington Post - 22 minutes ago
By Eugene Robinson. I've been wondering which variety of delusional thinking led George W. Bush to choose poor Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. It must have been one or the other, it seems to me, and neither is particularly good news. ...
The two knocks on Miers CNN
Miers Matters To Conservative Republicans The Moderate Voice
FOX News - National Ledger - San Diego Union Tribune - TIME -

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SMU...G.W. BUSH / MIERS / LAURA /CHENEY /HUGHS = MORE DOTS*

SMU'S RELATIONSHIPS

SMU...G.W. BUSH / MIERS / LAURA /CHENEY /HUGHS = MORE DOTS

Tue Oct 4, 2005 15:43

64.140.159.24

* Harriet Miers was named assistant to the president and staff secretary. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1967 and her law degree in 1970 from SMU. She received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the SMU law school in 1997.
January 20, 2001

SMU'S RELATIONSHIPS WITH PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, LAURA BUSH, AND VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
http://www.smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/00171.html

First Lady Laura Welch Bush
Laura Welch Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from SMU in 1968 and has kept in touch with classmates and professors through the years. In 1999 Laura Bush received the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award for her achievements advancing libraries, literacy and childhood education, and in July 2000, Laura Bush was elected to a four-year term on the SMU Board of Trustees.

Also in 1999, SMU dedicated the Laura Bush Promenade, a sitting and garden area outside SMU’s Fondren Library Center. Texas Governor George W. Bush funded the promenade as a Christmas gift honoring his wife’s contributions to the advancement of literacy and literature. In addition, seven of the First Lady’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters from SMU honored her by giving funds to the library as a tribute to their friendship. Then-Governor and Mrs. Bush participated in the dedication ceremony. By coincidence, on campus that same day was former President George H. W. Bush, who was at SMU to deliver a major address. Father and son greeted each other on campus and met with members of the media.

President George W. Bush
In 1999, then-Governor Bush gave SMU $250,000 to fund the Laura Bush Promenade, a sitting and garden area outside SMU’s main library center. He gave the promenade in honor of his wife’s contributions to libraries, literacy, and education. He and his wife participated in the dedication of the Promenade in April 1999.

On May 15, 1999, then-Governor Bush gave the address at SMU’s 84th annual commencement ceremony. He began his speech by saying: “The best decision I made in life was to marry into the SMU family.”
In August 2000, as Republican Presidential nominee, George W. Bush returned to campus to kick off his presidential campaign in Texas with a rally at SMU.

President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush
George W. Bush’s parents are also no strangers to SMU. Former President George H. W. Bush gave the address at SMU’s 77th annual commencement ceremony on May 16, 1992. In April 1999 former President Bush spoke as part of SMU’s Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series. Then-First Lady Barbara Bush spoke as part of the series in April 1998.

Vice President Dick Cheney
Vice President Dick Cheney also has ties to SMU. He served as a diplomat-in-residence at SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies in March 1996. Later that year, Cheney was named to the SMU Board of Trustees. On May 17, 1997 he gave the address at SMU’s 82nd commencement. In April 1999, Dick Cheney was featured as a panelist at the AT&T Lecture of SMU’s Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series. In summer 2000 Mr. Cheney was re-elected to another term on the SMU Board of Trustees; he resigned in August 2000 when he became the Republican candidate for vice president.

Secretary of State Colin Powell
In 1997 General Colin Powell received the first Medal of Freedom Award given by SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Dedman College. In 1999 he returned to campus to present the second award to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. General Powell also has spoken at SMU through the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series.

Other Bush Appointees and Connections
SMU graduates will fill several positions in the administration of President George W. Bush.

* Karen Hughes, Bush campaign adviser, was named counselor to the president. She graduated from SMU in 1977 with bachelor’s degrees in English and journalism, receiving top honors in both.
* Harriet Miers was named assistant to the president and staff secretary. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1967 and her law degree in 1970 from SMU. She received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the SMU law school in 1997.
* Mindy Tucker, who had been serving as a media spokesperson for candidate George W. Bush, is a 1992 graduate of SMU with a bachelor of business administration degree.
* In addition, SMU alumna Jeanne Johnson Phillips served as executive director of the Presidential Inauguration Committee. She is a 1976 graduate of SMU with bachelor’s degree in English.
* The Bush family’s pastor in Austin, James Lee Mayfield, is an SMU Perkins School of Theology alumnus who graduated in 1961 with a master of theology degree. He is senior pastor at Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin and serves on the Perkins Executive Board.
* Houston pastor and community leader Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, a 1999 SMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, gave the benediction at the Bush inauguration. He earned a master’s degree in theology in 1981 from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. He is a member of SMU's Board of Trustees, along with Laura Bush.

SMU Officials, Mustang Band, Cheerleaders and Students Attend Bush Inauguration
SMU President R. Gerald Turner, and his wife, Gail, attended the Bush Inauguration in Washington. Among SMU board members attending was board Chair Ruth Altshuler. Nearly 100 SMU Mustang Band members, cheerleaders and pom squad members performed in the Inaugural Parade, and a group of 18 SMU Corporate Communications and Public Affairs students worked as volunteers for the inaugural events. In addition, a photograph of Laura Bush taken for SMU Magazine by university photographer Hillsman S. Jackson was chosen by her as her official inauguration photograph and appeared in all inauguration publications.

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http://www.smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/00171.html

IS ANY REPOTERS FOLLIWING UP ON THESE CONNECTIONS...???