Politics of Paranoia: Ratner Claims Miers Criticism is Cover for Stealth Conservative

Charles Krauthammer has called the Miers nomination a "joke."

George Will called her "the wrong pick."

Bill Kristol labelled the nomination a "mistake."

David Frum suggests she is "not good enough."

Senators Brownback, Thune and Lott have expressed reservations.

So what are these folks up to? Well, to listen to Ellen Ratner, of Fox & Friends Weekend "Long & Short of It" feature, they are consciously . . . lying.

Yes, in her appearance this morning, Ratner claimed that the Republicans are "protesting too much" about Miers' lack of conservative credentials in a "concerted effort" [read "conspiracy'] to dupe Democrats into accepting her.

Said Ratner: "I think she is a stealth, very conservative candidate. I think they are raising this as a way of causing a lot of storm so liberals can say 'well, maybe she is not that bad' and I think this is a concerted effort to get her through."

Right, Ellen. George, Charles et. al got together in some DC basement and decided to throw away decades of credibility to publicly assert, counter to their deeply-held convictions, that Miers is a flawed candidate in a diabolical plot to dupe Dems into voting for her.

This is the paranoid style of politics writ large.

An aside: last week we chronicled Ratner's fatuous babbling to the effect that John Roberts "will be so right-wing that you won't even know he has a left-wing."

Ratner was back at her puerile antics this morning. When host Kiran Chetry cited a column to the effect that only 1/5 of Americans identify as liberals, Ratner noisily exclaimed "I'm part of that fifth! I'm part of that fifth!" Duh.