The single best criticism of the Miers nomination

Life tenure is, of course, the proverbial double-edged sword. But certainly an acknowledged strategy of Presidents from both parties has been to pick Justices who are young enough to reasonably be expected to spend many years on the Supreme Court — a "force multiplier" of a sort, each such pick still casting but one vote, yet casting votes for year upon year. And at 60, Ms. Miers is almost a decade older than the newly confirmed Chief Justice.

Initial criticisms from the right about Ms. Miers' age have almost disappeared, however, as her opponents have realized that it's a criticism that can only stick if one first accepts as a premise that Ms. Miers' votes over her likely career will be to one's liking. That is a premise they've spat back out. Indeed, Ms. Miers' age and actuarial likelihood of a shorter tenure undercuts their arguments across the board and, in particular, their arguments that Justices tend to drift to the left the longer they're on the bench and the farther removed they are from their "roots." It's likewise a bit unseemly for Ms. Miers' supporters to argue that, as a more mature nominee, she's unlikely to be as impressionable and subject to persuasion from the left as some younger potential nominees. (Unseemly — but valid.)

It's not directly on point, since it was from a contest involving two particular combatants — and Ms. Miers, to her misfortune, is compared against every other potential nominee whom her critics would rather have seen get the nod (including some who certainly would have been aggressively filibustered, and at least some of those probably successfully) — but I can't help recalling this wonderful bit from the second 1984 Presidential Debate:

MODERATOR: Mr. Trewhitt, your question to President Reagan?

REPORTER: Mr. President, I want to raise an issue that I think has been lurking out there for two or three weeks, and cast it specifically in national security terms. You already are the oldest President in history, and some of your staff say you were tired after your most recent encounter with Mr. Mondale. I recall, yes, that President Kennedy, who had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the Cuba missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?

REAGAN: Not at all, Mr. Trewhitt and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. If I still have time, I might add, Mr. Trewhitt, I might add that it was Seneca or it was Cicero, I don't know which, that said if it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.

This was "vintage" Gipper, of course. But this quip essentially ended President Reagan's age as in issue in that election. And while the age of a potential nominee may indeed be relevant in selecting among many candidates, once that candidate has been nominated, then absent some unusual circumstance — "the nominee is on a respirator!" or "the nominee has just been diagnosed with a terminal disease!" — it ought to basically drop out of the confirmation discussion.