When the nomination of Harriet Miers was at its most beleaguered, one political commentator suggested the president should appoint Chris Cox, the newly installed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the Supreme Court and name Ms. Miers, a skilled corporate litigator, to the SEC. Now that she has withdrawn, Ms. Miers seems determined to resume her duties as White House counsel. A perch on the SEC might not interest her, but the idea of putting Mr. Cox, a former California congressman and deputy White House counsel in the Reagan years, still holds a lot of appeal.
Mr. Cox would have several advantages. As a former member of the House leadership, he personally knows more than half of the Senators and has impressed many with his temperament and judgment. Only this past summer, Mr. Cox was fully vetted and won unanimous confirmation by the Senate to the SEC post. His experience in the business world as a corporate litigator would add invaluable perspective to a high court largely staffed with former federal appeals court judges. He also has experience with the many terrorism cases that will come before the court: He was the founding chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
As for confirmability, it's true that California Senator Barbara Boxer threatened to veto his nomination to a federal appeals court four years ago. But for the Supreme Court, no individual Senator can exercise such a veto and there is a good chance that Ms. Boxer's more moderate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, would back Mr. Cox. While his views are well known, the Harvard Law School graduate is clearly no ideological hothead and his calm and reasoned approach to the law has won admirers across the political spectrum.
