Meir's papers

The AP is reporting that Bush is refusing to turn over to the Senate papers relating to his conversations with Harriet Miers. Those documents will not be made available to the Senate for their review of her nomination to the Supreme Court. Bush is claiming that the requested papers are covered by attorney client confidentiality. Setting aside the fact that the request was for "non-privileged documents", this should be a deal breaker on her confirmation. If she is that close to the president, then she should not be appointed, much less confirmed, for the Supreme Court. The vital role of the court is as an independent review of the other two branches. Meir's is clearly not independent of the current executive.

For what it is worth, I'm not convinced that she is a jurist with whom I would object on ideological grounds. It is just not clear how conservative, and on what issues, she is. But at this point, on qualification, transparency, independence and experience, it would be a decidedly bad precedent to confirm her to the bench.