A number of readers have written in recent days to suggest that I, and others here, may be too young to appreciate what a big deal some of Harriet Miers’s “first woman” resume milestones were at the time. I don’t mean to diminish her accomplishments. Clearly she’s successful. But it is 2005 and to say that we need a separate category to measure female candidates for the Supreme Court–that they simply cannot compete with the guys–is, as I’ve said, patronizingly sexist. Move on from the milestones. It’s a meritocracy.

Or…is it?

I was at the White House on Friday afternoon for a Hispanic Heritage Month event, where the president gave out some volunteer awards. I was perplexed to hear the president talk about “the soft bigotry of low expectations” in education. Did he not see the irony in him talking like that during the week he went out of his way again and again to suggest that Harriet Miers is good enough for a girl to sit on the Supreme Court?