Ron Cass, the former dean of the Boston University School of Law, has published a defense of the Miers pick, although he concedes (as many of her defenders do) that "Ms. Miers wasn't my pick, and wouldn't have been if I had been choosing, because she doesn't bring to the Court demonstrated excellence in the skill set that I value most for that position." So given his opinion of its merits, what then is his defense of the nomination?

You really should read the whole piece (entitled, Stop Whining -- Right Choices and the Courts) which includes responses to arguments I made on Tuesday in my Wall Street Journal op-ed, but here is how his defense ends:

Conservative critics should be especially ashamed. Conservatives have been insisting that judges should respect the Constitution and laws, secure that this is enough to ask. Conservatives also have been aware that the Constitution grants substantial discretion to the President in making appointments. It is his call. We have elections to determine who gets to make picks such as this, and President Bush -- to the delight of conservatives across the nation -- won. Now he has picked someone he knows well and believes shares his vision of modest and law-bound judging, someone who helped steer the President to select other judges in that mold. Judges like John Roberts.

It's time for those who have made common cause with the President to give him exactly the presumption that the Constitution does and political alliance should -- that he has the right to make appointments of anyone who has the competence and temperament for the job. The presumption is that he has done this.

Now it's time to stop whining before the next turn of the political wheel gives conservatives something real to whine about.