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Thursday, October 13, 2005

Eschew Obfuscation!
Posted by Jill | 6:05 AM

For once, I agree with David Brooks:

Of all the words written about Harriet Miers, none are more disturbing than the ones she wrote herself. In the early 90's, while she was president of the Texas bar association, Miers wrote a column called "President's Opinion" for The Texas Bar Journal. It is the largest body of public writing we have from her, and sad to say, the quality of thought and writing doesn't even rise to the level of pedestrian.

[snip]

I don't know if by mere quotation I can fully convey the relentless march of vapid abstractions that mark Miers's prose. Nearly every idea is vague and depersonalized. Nearly every debatable point is elided.


Here's where I diverge from Brooks, however, whose main complaint is that

I don't know if by mere quotation I can fully convey the relentless march of vapid abstractions that mark Miers's prose. Nearly every idea is vague and depersonalized. Nearly every debatable point is elided.


No, my complaint is that she's a nitwit, albeit a nitwit with a large vocabulary.

Remember the prisoner played by Damon Wayans In Living Color who spoke what he thought were intelligent, militant polemics, because he used a lot of big (and often scatalogical) words? That's kind of what the Early Writings of Saint Harriet sound like -- more like a high school kid trying to cover up for the fact that he wrote the term paper without cracking a single book other than the dictionary:

"More and more, the intractable problems in our society have one answer: broad-based intolerance of unacceptable conditions and a commitment by many to fix problems."

Or this: "We must end collective acceptance of inappropriate conduct and increase education in professionalism."

Or this: "When consensus of diverse leadership can be achieved on issues of importance, the greatest impact can be achieved."

Or passages like this: "An organization must also implement programs to fulfill strategies established through its goals and mission. Methods for evaluation of these strategies are a necessity. With the framework of mission, goals, strategies, programs, and methods for evaluation in place, a meaningful budgeting process can begin."

Or, finally, this: "We have to understand and appreciate that achieving justice for all is in jeopardy before a call to arms to assist in obtaining support for the justice system will be effective. Achieving the necessary understanding and appreciation of why the challenge is so important, we can then turn to the task of providing the much needed support."


Now, I'm all for expanding one's vocabulary. I've been accused more than once by people who don't know any words that have more than two syllables of using "big words" to try to impress, when the reality is that I have the vocabulary I do because instead of being one of the cool kids, I spent much of my childhood and adolescence in the corner, brooding, with my nose in a book. But at least I know how to use words in the service of ideas, rather than in place of them.

It's hardly surprising that an inarticulate boob like C-Plus Caligula, who says things like "strategery" and expressions like "catapult the propaganda", would think that Harriet Miers is smart because she uses a lot of big words. But if I were a high school teacher, I'm not sure I'd even give a term paper that used constructs such as the above a passing grade, let alone say it qualifies the writer to sit on the Supreme Court.

What The Early Writings of Harriet Miers DO prove, however, is that she's most definitely a corporatist -- expert at using a lot of powerful-sounding words to say absolutely nothing.
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