MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Answering the “Liberal Feminist” SMEAR on Harriet Miers

• Posted by Beth on October 10th, 2005 filed in General, Politics, SCOTUS, Stupid    

Yesterday, I got (what I consider) spammed with a “comment” that consisted solely of a link to some crappy blog with a smear on Harriet Miers, saying she’s a “feminist” (the horror!). You know what? That’s just stupid. I deleted the “comment” and responded via email to the spammer with a modified version of my answer to the smear. I would have just blown off the whole thing from there, but I found today that it’s being repeated on other blogs, and now it’s been mentioned in my comments again (although not as a spammy comment).
And I see now that the Family Research Council is STUPIDLY spreading the story. Here’s their attack, which they temper with a (weak) “handle with care” disclaimer:

The Chronicle of Higher Education yesterday published a story on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. It spoke of her “playing a key role” in the late 1990s in establishing the Louise B. Raggio lectureship at Southern Methodist University, Miss Miers’ alma mater. The article says Miss Miers “pushed for the creation” of the Raggio speakers’ series. The Raggio lectureship brought an apparently unbroken string of pro-abortion speakers to the university’s Dallas campus. Among those tapped to enlighten young law students were Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine and a veteran campaigner for liberal abortion laws. Also holding forth were Congresswoman Patricia Schoeder, Susan Faludi, author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, and even former Texas Governor Ann W. Richards, the pro-abortion Democrat whom George W. Bush defeated in 1994.

Interesting, isn’t it? Well that’s not really the WHOLE STORY, either, but you wouldn’t know it unless you CARED TO LOOK for yourself.

From the SMU Raggio lecture series page:

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“If you are a woman living and working in Texas today, you owe Louise Ballerstedt Raggio a debt of gratitude. A woman’s legal right to own property, secure a bank loan, or start a business without the consent of her husband is a direct result of Raggio’s efforts in drafting the Texas Marital Property Act of 1967. Moreover, her pioneering achievements as a woman attorney, her distinguished career in the practice of family law, and her personal qualities of leadership make her an exemplary role model for women everywhere. Some highlights of her extraordinary career include:

- - - - -
Anything look familiar in Ms. Raggio’s resume? How about the fact that it’s extraordinarily parallel to Ms. Miers’ pioneering work as a female lawyer in Texas–make that Dallas, Texas, like Harriet Miers.

I STRONGLY suspect (because, well, I’m not STUPID) that Harriet Miers is or was a personal friend (she’s definitely a peer) of Ms. Raggio, considering their strikingly similar backgrounds, and thus Ms. Miers’ work to help start it up is utterly unsurprising–rather, it’s commendable, in that she supported a fellow pioneer in the legal field for women (and most likely, a friend), rather than back-stabbing to surpass her (which it would seem she has managed to do). Louise Raggio isn’t nominated for the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers is. Louise Raggio might be a moonbat with a full-fledged case of Bush Derangement Syndrome for all we know, but it’s obvious that Harriet Miers is NOT.

It would be ridiculous to assume that Ms. Miers is responsible for the choice of speakers for the series, and furthermore, what about other speakers? There was a woman last year who is the President of Southwest Airlines (she’s the highest “ranking” female in the airline industry) who gave the lecture for the Raggio series with the company Chairman–a MAN. I seriously doubt she’s a bra-burning old-style feminist, being in the highest echelons of the corporate world.

I have a lot of admiration for women like Miers and Raggio due to their breaking ground for women in the workplace. Gloria Steinem? No, not now. However, her work decades ago DID do some good, regardless of her more recent partisan, pro-abortion moonbattery.

Nice try. I suspect this is just the latest DESPERATE attempt to divide the GOP–making Miers out to be a left-wing feminist. This one is so disgusting that it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that it’s a deliberate attempt to further the division among conservatives over the issue. Quit playing their dumbass game. Even the FRC recognized the political bias of those where the story originated; too bad they decided to use it anyway.

Handle with care, indeed. Like a bad habit.

UPDATE: Polipundit and Michelle Malkin, I expected you to look at this with a more critical, analytical eye. Frustrated and disappointed doesn’t even begin to describe my reaction to your willingness to accept this one.

UPDATE 2: From the Dallas Morning News:

Louise Raggio says there’s no reason to fret about President Bush’s pick to replace Sandra Day O’Connor.

“I pushed her election as state bar president,” says the 85-year-old legal pioneer, who helped overhaul Texas marriage and family laws in 1967 and expanded the rights of women to do business here.

Ms. Raggio has known the Supreme Court nominee since Ms. Miers was a student at Southern Methodist University’s law school.

“I have a great deal of respect for her and her legal abilities,” Ms. Raggio says.

“She is very conservative, but she’s fair and deliberate in her work.”

[h/t: sinkspur at FR]

From FindLaw:

Louise Raggio: Raggio, still practicing law at age 85, is considered a “pioneer in marital and family rights” and been called the “Mother of Family Law in Texas.” Mrs. Raggio graduated from Southern Methodist University law school in 1952 and was the only woman in that class. Mrs. Raggio has known Harriet Miers, personally and professionally, for more than 35 years, including when Ms. Miers was a law student at SMU.