Dobson was on Fox last night defending Miers on the grounds she’s an evangelical Christian. It seems entirely possible and plausible to me that Bush had this as much in his mind as her inner-circle status. As of right now, the Court is brimming with Catholics, isn’t it? That Dobson takes this view suggests to me that we may have been a bit blindsided yesterday and in fact Bush is playing a bit of identity-politics on the sly. Evangelical Justices can be trusted to vote the right way because they are, well, evangelicals — or at least that seems to be the desired subtext. Also in the mix, the White House may be hoping the Democrats take the bait and go after Miers for her religion they way they tried to at first with Roberts’s Catholicism. Rove would indeed love to watch Democrats foolishly take the bait, shouting “theocrat! theocrat!”, so that supporters could say that in today’s Democratic party no (evangelical) Christians need apply.

I don’t have a problem with much of this logic in the abstract. Certainly, an evangelical Christian has as much right to a seat on the Court as anybody else (and if one factors in democratic notions, even more of a right. But democratic notions shouldn’t be given much weight). And, contrary to those who despise “polarization,” I think polarization is a two way street. Democrats are just plain stupid when they decide to portray evangelicals as some sort of semi-demonic group to get worked-up over. If nominating an evangelical pushes Democratic buttons, shame on the Democrats for having their buttons pushable on such a thing.

No, my only real objection is that she doesn’t seem to be overwhelmingly qualified for the job. Surely, there are more qualified evangelical judicial conservatives out there, including female ones. The problem with being under-qualified, aside from the obvious points about merit, is that it gives Democrats a good reason not to take the bait the White House is trying to lay out for them.