Marital Status, Tax Hike Signs of Miers's Philosophy?

Media reports on Supreme Court Justice nominee Harriet Miers have noted that she gave money to Senators Al Gore and Lloyd Bentsen in the 1980's. But little has been made over one aspect of Harriet Miers that makes her one of the most overlooked minorities in American politics today: single persons. By definition, those who are single know what it's like to live in a world that celebrates an "alien" lifestyle, which should give rise to an individualism that is not to be found in those who are in the throes of "domestic bliss" or working toward that aim.

Chief Justice John Roberts got married very late in life: at age 41 in 1996. Given the Administration's use of marriage as a political football, one wonders if being among an elite class of lawyers exempts an individual from the unspoken evangelical presumption that a person can never be fully human without a spouse and offspring.

Two years ago, The Advocate published an article on the eve of the landmark Lawrence v. Texas decision (striking down state sodomy laws) that looked into whether speculation about the sexual orientation of "one of their own" has modified the civil rights jurisprudence of the Supreme Court. The answer is probably "no." But for armchair constitutional enthusiasts like myself, I still wonder whether the back problems of Justices Rehnquist and O’Connor worked in favor of golfer Casey Martin in his suit against the PGA.

Perhaps President Bush is the only one who really knows what's in the mind and heart of Harriet Miers, as his similar understanding of Vladimir Putin (which has not tranlated into a more democatic Russia by any measure). For those of us on the outside, the Miers record is so scant that one is forced to look at every aspect of Miers's career, including her stint on the Dallas city council. There, she proved that she would have not been a friend of Grover Norquist, as evidenced by an item by The Wall Journal's John Fund in today's PoliticalDiary:

A budget crunch in 1990 forced the council to consider a tax increase -- its third in four years. After a marathon session in which more than 50 votes were taken on proposed additions and reductions to the budget, the council voted six-to-five to approve a 7% increase in the property tax rate. Ms. Miers provided the crucial sixth vote for the tax increase, largely in order to fund an additional $900,000 in programs that had not been contained in the city manager's budget. Chief among the additions were $700,000 for Dallas' library system.

Fund has "no reason to believe she isn't a conservative" after conversing with Ms. Miers's friends.

Actually, her record in office wouldn't necessarily exclude her from the current ranks of the typical "big government conservative" Republican member of Congress -- the exception being that local government officials don't have the luxury of the U.S. Treasury to liberally issue more debt. When a state or locality issues debt, it must compete against other state and local government entities that have done so. Those carrying an excessive amount of debt, or are chronically in debt, are rated lower by Moody's and requires an increased premium to prospective bond holders. California taxpayers should know about this very well, especially as they issue billions of dollars in more debt for ostensibly laudable causes like stem-cell research and children's hospitals -- and to cover current budgetary shortfalls.

[Update: Time's website has published a Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas candidate questionnaire Miers answered in 1989 while running for her council seat. The verdict? She's all over the map, but probably not nearly conservative enough for James Dobson, Tony Perkins, et al.]