Back when Harriet Miers was nominated to be the Supreme Court, Ann Coulter and many other right wing nuts tore her apart for having graduated from an undistinguished law school. Naturally this logic should apply to the people who evaluate such nominees to, if to a lesser extent. So I compared the legal credintials of all 18 Senators on the Judiciary committee...guess which side is better educated?
Harriet Miers graduated from Sothern Methodist University School of Law. According ot U.S. News and World report, SMU is the 52nd best law school in all the land. Or as one Bush talking point put it, the second best law school in Texas. (Larry Miller quipped on the Bill Maher show that that's a bit like saying she's the third tallest woman in Japan.)
So I looked up the credentials of all 18 Senators on the Judiciary committe. Let's start with he Democrats. Six of the 8 democrats are lawyers.
Feingold and Shumer went to (#2) Harvard. Ted Kennedy went to (#8) U of Virginia. Durbin and Leahy went to (#14) Georgetown. Only Joe Biden went to a school not considered in the first tier of law schools (#95) Syracuse.
And now the Republicans. Eight out of ten are lawyers but only Arlen Spector (#1) Yale went to a prestigous law school. Kyl and Session went to schools that are tied for 41st. (Arizona and Alabama, respectively). Lindsey Graham went to (#90) South Carolina and Sam Brownback went to the lowest ranked school to receive a numerical ranking (#100) Kansas. Dewine and Cronyn went to schools that are listed as "Tier 4", the lowest ranking a law school can get from U.S. News and World Report. Dewine went to Ohio Northern, Cronyn from something called St. Mary's University in Texas.
What about the non-lawyers? Well on the Dem side we have Diane Feinstein who has only a Bachelor's degree...from Stanford. And Herb Kohl who holds an MBA from a school called Harvard. (And he put it to good use. Have you ever shopped at a Kohl's Department store? He would be the Kohl in question.)
For the GOP we have Chuck Grassley, he has a master's degree in agriculter from University of Northern Iowa. And then Crazy Tom Coblurn, a real-life Medical Doctor and prime-time lunatic.
Now I don't put a lot of stock in these rankings. Lindsay Graham had a fine career as a JAG officer and is probably a better lawyer than many Georgetown or VUA grads. But the Republicans made a stink about them when it was Harriet Miers' name in nomination. I wonder why they don't ask more of their judiciary members?