I obviously don’t know Harriet Miers and my friend Matthew Scully might be spot-on about her in the New York Times today. He could also be making a very typical mistake. I’m guessing Miers is an introvert from what we’ve heard about her, and I think people often assume that if someone is quiet and unassuming that means they have no ego, no resentments, no ambitions. This is nonsense. Introverts are people too, with all the same failings although they aren’t always as up front about them. And I just don’t buy that Miers has no ambitions. You don’t work 16-hour days for years without having ambitions, you don’t pour your entire life into your career without caring about it. If this nomination is something she didn’t want, she could have said “no.” The fact is that there are many ways to get ahead–one of them is to accumulate the kind of credentials that you think might get you on the Supreme Court in 20 years; another is to loyally serve–and ingratiate yourself with and flatter–a very powerful person. Both are ways to be ambitious, one is just quieter and lower-profile (and maybe less admirable) than the other. Anyway, just a thought. I could be wrong and she genuinely might be a saint.