First, to HM supporters: Take a deep breath. Are you sure you haven’t dug in irrationally? Have you reached the point where you’re treating people who know Miers and say she’s impressive as reasons to support her, and people who know her and say she’s not as axe-grinders? Are you denigrating “scribblers” and “opiners” when writing opinions is what the job in question mostly involves?

Second, to the opponents: Take a deep breath. Are you sure you haven’t dug in irrationally? Many of you have been saying that it’s not enough for a justice to have the right positions. (Others are unsure that Miers has the right positions on legal issues, but that’s a different issue.) Are you sure you’re not undervaluing the ability to reach the right conclusions? A solid opinion that reaches the right legal conclusion is superior to a weak one that also does. But either one is superior to an opinion, however well done in certain respects, that gets the law wrong. And it’s not as though we’ve got a surplus of good votes on the Supreme Court. Some of the opponents seem to be talking as though we do.