It was Frum v. Shrum on Hardball tonight, and Shrum set himself up for a fall. After Frum made some good arguments against the Miers nomination (she supported racial quotas, she’s hardly the most qualified conservative jurist, etc.), Shrum argued that the right couldn’t get away with arguing about qualifications — after all, they supported Clarence Thomas:

SHRUM: If David keeps this up, he’s going to become better known for conveying the impression and driving it home of an “axis of mediocrity” in the Bush administration, than for coining the phrase “axis of evil” in Bush’s State of the Union speech. This isn’t about qualifications. The fact is the right wing that is braying about this supported Clarence Thomas, who’s one of the most unqualified nominees ever to the United States Supreme Court…

Shrum then said he had a friend who knew Harriet Miers and wasn’t sure that she’d vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Then Matthews asked:

MATTHEWS: What’s the toughest law school to get into, Bob?
SHRUM: Well, I think, you know, there’re –
MATTHEWS: Yeah, okay. Clarence Thomas got into Yale Law School –
SHRUM: Well, there’s Yale, Harvard, NYU –
MATTHEWS: No, but Yale is very exclusive, it’s very academic, it’s very small compared to Harvard. How can you say not qualified when somebody’s cleared Yale Law?

Watch the video for Shrum’s stuttering response as he’s obviously caught between his party’s support for affirmative action and his disdain for Thomas.

BONUS: Frum wincing as Shrum executes the moronic “axis of mediocrity” line. It must be hard to watch even your opponent in a debate make a fool of himself.

PLUS: If you aren’t reading Frum’s blog on the Miers nomination, why not?