I just read this morning that Harriet Miers is still the nominee for the Supreme Court! I can't believe it. Now here's somebody who can't take a hint. No wonder she has not been so successful with her dating life.*

I'm sort of looking forward to the confirmation hearings, which will doubtless be the most entertaining since a certain pubic hair once flitted onto a certain Coke. But I think it's more likely that Miers will fake a wicked stomachache and ask to be sent home. Or tell everyone that the White House staff was playing 'truth or dare' and for her turn, it was this or make out with Karl Rove.

* OK that was cruel. But here's the thing. Everyone wants to know how serious a conservative she is, right? And conservative Christians don't believe in premarital sex, right? So a conservative Christian lawyer ... who has never been married ... should be a virgin, right?

While the media is not making this analysis in so many words, there has been a strange fixation on uncovering former paramours, like Jim Martin, a law school classmate:

"She was a lot of fun," he said. "Good sense of humor. Cute. She was athletic. She was a very good tennis player, and we played a lot of tennis. She's just a very good sort of regular person. No airs about her."

One night, after another grueling workday, they met for a late meal at a Denny's restaurant. Over a plate of eggs over easy and ham, they broke it off.

"Our time wasn't our own," he said. "She's a very warm and caring person and would make someone a wonderful wife. It's just that she's extremely focused on her career. In that context, she has never had enough time to carve out a significant relationship that would take a great deal of time."

Doesn't that just break your heart. But "fun", "cute", "athletic" -- come on, you seriously think they didn't do it?

But MB, you argue, how could they have had sex? They were law students. Yeah, good point.

We also have the curious case of Justice Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court:

For 30 years, Hecht and Miers ... have nurtured a kinship that has entranced and confounded their closest friends. They are traditional conservatives content in a modern, nontraditional relationship, one that leaves plenty of time for their true love, their work, to take center stage.

Romantic at times, the relationship has played an important role in their ascent to power — she as White House counsel, he as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, where he has served for 15 years ...

"We are good, close friends," he said Friday. "And we have been for all these years. We go to dinner. We go to the movies two or three times a year. We talk. And that's the best way to describe it. We are not dating. We are not seeing each other romantically. Not currently."

Can we seriously infer that they have been seeing each other for thirty years and never did it? Now you see what's really at stake in these confirmation hearings.

UPDATE: 48 hrs after this post, Miers has withdrawn. Coincidence? You decide.

25 Oct 05