The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

Harriet Miers is gone. She was an extremely poor choice for the court and I was certainly not the only blogger to predict her withdrawal. Some would (and probably will) say that Senator Sam Brownback seems to have won.

In reality, this is a severe blow to his presidential aspirations. He needed the bright lights and stage of the judicial committee hearings. His low name recognition requires conflict and fireworks. In fact, this is the worst possible outcome for Brownback. He now needs to leverage the small amount of recognition he received from his pseudo-opposition of Miers to become a loud and abrasive spokesman for another cause. This will be a real test of his political acumen because the Miers nomination was an unintended gift from the White House. Brownback just had to sit back and enjoy. Now he must make himself seem an important expert in other areas.

I think he will attempt to become the leading hawk on Iran. Iran’s President has been making idiotic statements about Israel lately and Brownback has a long history of being antagonistic towards the Iranian government. He added $3 million to the budget to “promote democracy in Iran” and is fighting to have it spent.

The next nomination will almost certainly be split more conventionally down party lines. I don’t see Brownback playing a significant part in that debate.