Daily Blague

It turns out that Harriet Miers is not entirely the woman of no accomplishment that she is made out to be. Even allowing for slant, Molly McDonough's piece for the American Bar Association's Web site, "Harriet Miers' 'Unknown' Story," ticks off a list of achievements - all related to the Bar.

Miers focused most of her career in behind-the-scenes trial practice. Colleagues say her penchant for being discreet won her the trust of her clients, including Microsoft, Walt Disney & Co. and, eventually, then-Gov. George W. Bush.

When she did take center stage, it was through bar activities. At the ABA, Miers served for nine years on the ABA Journal Board of Editors, and from 1995 to 1998 she served as chair. She also served in the ABA as chair of the Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice, chair of the House of Delegates’ Rules and Calendar Committee, and co-chair of the Section of Litigation’s Business Torts Litigation Committee. She also was a longtime member of the ABA Consortium on Legal Services and the Public, and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Ms McDonough writes that Ms Miers is "well-known" for not making an issue of her string of "gender-barrier breakthroughs." That may be genuine modesty, or it may be the character trait that made her attractive to Texan patriarchs, Uncle-Tom style. After all, the law firm that hired her as its first female associate did so in 1972.

In the end, this article confirms, once and for all, my sense that Harriet Miers is a first-class crony. The Delegates' Rules and Calendar Committee? Bingo.