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Hackett to challenge DeWine for Senate

WASHINGTON — Paul Hackett, the Iraq War veteran from Cincinnati who was hailed by national Democrats for his narrow loss this summer in a heavily Republican House district, has quickly moved up in rank to challenge Mike DeWine for U.S. Senate in 2006.

“Paul Hackett is running for U.S. Senate,” said spokesman David Woodruff, who served as Hackett’s campaign manager in his special election campaign for the 2nd District House seat against Rep. Jean Schmidt.

“He is planning to announce his decision officially on Oct. 24,” Woodruff said Monday, adding an event would be held that day in Cincinnati, from which Hackett would begin a statewide bus tour.

[more]

Hackett, you will recall, is the guy who ran against Republican Jean Schmidt in Ohio’s 2nd District earlier this year, after Rob Portman left Congress to become US Trade Representative, and lost by only the narrowest of margins — a result which, when coupled with the ongoing Coingate festivities, has led many to conclude that the Ohio GOP is in serious trouble in the next election cycle. Interesting.

(sidenote: I think it’s hilarious that Paul Hackett has a ridiculously detailed Wikipedia entry.)

Just… no.

The Washington Monthly‘s Amy Sullivan on the Miers nomination:

Already I’ve received a robo-email from Ken Mehlman proclaiming her “extremely well-qualified” and declaring that “like Justice O’Connor”, she “is a legal trailblazer.” That is an insult to Justice O’Connor. Even the Washington Post’s morning piece on Miers, which goes out of its way to make the most of her skimpy qualifications, can’t avoid the fact that Miers has done very little of note in the legal world and, “if confirmed, she would be a rare appointee with no experience as a judge at any level.”

And since Mehlman has already despaired of any effort by liberals to judge Miers fairly, I’ll go ahead and say it: It’s possible that with a six-week bar review course, any of us would be more qualified than Harriet Miers to sit on the Supreme Court.

Pretty much sums it all up, doncha think?

(For the record: I don’t necessarily mind that Miers has no judicial experience. I do find it somewhat less than comforting, however, that in a nation of more than 300 million people, the President feels that best candidate to succeed Justice O’Connor already works in the White House. And is from Texas. And worked directly on his campaign. And was his personal lawyer. The bubble, it would seem, is still intact.)