Miers’s worse than mediocre writing ability

Of particular interest in the matter of Harriet Miers are the excerpts of her writing gathered by Time magazine, and ably discussed by Jim Lindgren at The Volokh Conspiracy. Lindgren concludes:

The last piece that I encountered before reading the excerpts from Miers’ article was Randy Barnett’s op-ed on Miers. The difference in the quality of the prose between the two pieces is striking. Randy Barnett writes like a person who earns his living by expressing his reasoning in writing; Harriet Miers doesn’t — though if she is confirmed, that is exactly what she will be doing for the next couple of decades.

In fact, Lindgren is too easy on Miers, who makes one mistake of usage after another. For example, she writes: “The two men who died exemplified individuals devoted to their God, their families, their fellow man, their communities and their profession.” Two men can exemplify a principle or a quality, such as devotion to God; they cannot exemplify “individuals devoted to God.” Mistakes of this order show not only an inability to express reasoning in writing; they show an inability to write, period.

For Miers addicts (so to speak), The Volokh Conspiracy site has a great amount of material on her.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 09, 2005 01:28 PM | Send