Representative Mediocrity
Harriet Miers: cronyism or representative mediocrity?
When Richard Nixon, no fan of the Supreme Court, nominated the forgettable G. Harrold Carswell thirty-five years ago, Senator Roman Hruska defended the nomination with an unforgettable bit of wisdom: “Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there.” Have we sunk, again, to that level?
[Geoffrey R. Stone, "Cronyism and the Court", The Huffington Post, 3 October 2005.]
Maybe this is the answer to the President's popularity that we've been looking for: he looks out for the little guy. Of course, by little guy we don't mean the poor or disenfranchised, we mean the successfully mediocre. Sure, the middle-American in Kansas can buy into the propaganda that W. is mediocre just like him, but this is really a mediocrity of a different class altogether, and I don't use the word "class" thoughtlessly. Bush is the triumph of the rich and mediocre, those who have enough money to keep failing and thereby succeed fully at miserable failure. The rich mediocre American is a descendant of the widely lampooned English upper-class twit.
Mediocrity is clearly a characteristic that the President recognizes in others and he rewards it, not only with ambassadorships in the time-honored tradition, but by Medals of Freedom and appointments to big, important federal agencies.
As the joke goes: my mother always said that in America anybody can become president, and George Bush proves it! Of course, if you'd prefer the Supreme Court….
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.