If you can tell a lot about a person by their friends and
enemies, then it should be revealing to see how people are lining up on the
Miers nomination.

On the enemies [or shall we say ‘serious doubters’] side: Rush
Limbaugh, George Will, Mark Levin and Terence Jeffrey.

On the ‘friends’ side: Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and, as of
this morning, the Today show.

We put Today in the 'friends' category because friendship, or at least advocacy of the Miers
nomination, can be the only possible explanation for the puff piece Today ran
this morning on President Bush’s support for “strong women.”

A red flag should have immediately gone up when David
Gregory, who normally spends his days antagonizing Scott McClellan in the WH
press room, introduced the segment with this bouquet to W’s feminism:

"[Miers is] only the latest powerful woman in the Bush
administration to move into the spotlight. Over the last five years President Bush
has made a habit of revising the old adage ‘behind ever great man there’s a
great woman’ by putting women right beside him."

With the graphic “All the President’s Women’ on the screen [words
that would have had an altogether different meaning in the previous
administration], Texas Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchinson certified W’s feminist credentials:

“He’s very comfortable
with strong women. I believe he thinks
as a father of daughters that women should have an equal place in our society.” Cue the Oprah theme music!

We were then treated to a laundry list [no pun intended] of the "strong women" in W's administration, from Condi, to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, to Karen Hughes.

Gregory assured us that “all are strong-minded women,
unafraid to voice their opinions, not
unlike women in the president’s own family," as images of Barbara and Laura
flashed on the screen, along with a clip of Laura saying back in July that she
hoped W nominated a woman.

Continued Gregory, persisting in his new vocation of Bush cheerleader: "observers say the trust placed in these women is not
political pandering but a show of true support for their abilities." Gregory couldn't resist one gratuitous swipe at W, adding that his support for women is "an image at
odds with the caricature of a back-slapper and former frat boy."

The final 'friend' brought on to certify W's feminist bona fides was John Dickerson of
left-leaning Slate.com.

Opined Dickerson: "it doesn’t
matter what people may think of this president or of the job these individual
women might have done in the positions they’ve had. It’s clear that the
president has put them in their positions because he believes in their merit."

For conservatives, the calvacade of MSM boosters of the Miers nomination should throw up more red flags than the number on display at the Kremlin on a Stalin May Day.

<>
Finkelstein has degrees from Cornell University and Harvard Law
School.He lives in Ithaca, NY where he hosts "Right Angle," a local
political talk show. Finkelstein specializes in exposing liberal bias
at NBC's Today Show.

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.