President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has had a lot of conservatives scrutinizing over her record, or a lack thereof. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty as to which way she will vote and more importantly, whether or not she will align herself firmly in the conservative ideology.

More recently, columnist Ann Coulter has taken the fight one step further and has bashed our own university, SMU, and cited Miers’ attendance here as one of the reasons why she should not be taken seriously as a nominee. Now, SMU may not be an Ivy League school, but it’s not Sam Houston State University, either.

Coulter implies in an article posted on her Web site from Oct. 5, that Bush may have nominated Miers as a joke, and that “conservatives have been trained to hate people who went to elite universities, and generally that’s a good rule of thumb. But not when it comes to the Supreme Court.”

So, conservatives should distrust those who have attended Ivy League schools, but they’ll do alright for the Supreme Court. Hmm – Ed Board smells contradiction.

And where in the Constitution does it say that Supreme Court nominees must have attended a university with a certain numerical ranking as approved by Ann Coulter and friends? If Ed Board recalls correctly, there is no section in the Constitution entitled “Supreme Court material.” But perhaps someone is just a little jealous that her own name wasn’t on the short list?

She also seems to think that Laura Bush is keeping her husband on a tight leash and pulling all the strings on this one. She notes that “at least President Clinton only allowed his wife to choose the attorney general.” Next she will be claiming that Laura Bush is not qualified to be First Lady.

Coulter even stoops so low to jab at Miers by unfairly hinting that Bush’s dog, Barney, has traits similar to those listed by Miers’ proponents. Ed Board strongly objects to the idea that a Scottish terrier could make it through SMU as an undergrad, let alone its law school.

Let us not forget that Democrats were quick to declare that John Roberts was not qualified to sit on the highest court in the nation, and now he is Chief Justice. It will be interesting to see what kinds of questions Miers will be asked, and whether more conservative senators will vote for or against her during the confirmation vote.

To view Ann Coulter’s article, visit www.anncoulter.com.