The Prez says he knows Harriet Miers's heart. He says conservatives can trust her to do what he says she will.

Maybe. But in appointing someone who has, in the past, referred to him as "the world's smartest governor" and "the greatest," the Prez is overlooking one of the most important rules in life: Never trust someone who kisses your ass.

This is a particularly tough rule for someone like the Prez, who has been surrounded by sycophants for as long as he can probably remember. He's had friends who were after his name, his money and his connections. I don't doubt that he has had friends who valued him as a person, but my guess is that those folks are far and in between. It's just not in the character of folks who hold his job. A person must have one hell of an inferiority complex in order to even seriously contemplate running for president. I mean, there's no higher level of validation than having millions of people pick you over someone else.

Which makes listening to yes-men (and yes-women) all the more tempting. And it's not like any president is likely to have a large circle of friends who will tell him the truth. Imagine how history might be different if they did.

"Hey Bill, how about you cut down on the hummers in the Oval Office."

"Hey George, maybe you oughta ask for sashimi rather than sushi."

"Ron, just because you call them freedom fighters doesn't make it true."

"Jimmy, the gals from 'What Not to Wear' tell me that sweaters are bad, bad, bad for the presidential image."

"I don't care if God itself told you to do it, don't give Nixon a pardon."

"Just fess up, Dick. You did it. You might as well admit it."

"Thousands dead in a country no one can spell properly. Lyndon, don't you think it's time to pull the plug?"

I dunno. I think folks like the Prez are so tuned into hearing what they want to hear that they'd simply tune out what they don't want to hear. But the selection of Miers is a stunning example of presidential hubris.

And for what? Miers might well become a moderate to liberal justice. There are such moments in her past, and as any observant conservative will tell you, Supreme Court justices tend to mellow leftward in their dotage. Some attribute this to the dinner party syndrome--justices decide cases in a more liberal manner in order to impress their friends in the Georgetown dinner party circuit. That's a pretty silly conspiracy theory. But it is true that few justices are dyed-in-the-wool social conservatives. Even William Rehnquist, a true conservative, wasn't a reliable vote on all "social" cases.

Miers might well turn out to be even more reactionary than Scalia. I don't know. What I do know is that no one knows how Miers will decide cases, and that in all likelihood, she doesn't either.

Conservatives have been pounding away at her nomination, basically saying it's possible she's some kind of liberal mole who changed her stripes more than 10 years ago so that she might infiltrate the conservative movement. I dunno. Maybe they're right.

What I can say is that there's no reason the Prez should believe anything that comes out of her mouth. She brown nosed her way into her job as the Prez's lawyer, and it's safe to say she didn't wipe it off before he nominated her. He knows her heart? Shit. He only knows what she says to him, and to be honest, I'd rather trust the word of a hooker with KS who swears she doesn't have AIDS.

Never believe someone who tells you you're the smartest anything in the world. That person obviously is unqualified to offer such a judgment. And since judgment is what's required for the Supreme Court...

I think you know how that sentence ends.

Jon Worley has never had the pleasure of operating within a circle of sycophants.