Mikulski Shocked at Sexism and Double Standard

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) made the following remarks at a press conference today regarding Republican reaction to the nomination of Harriett Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court:

"First of all, I don't know how I will vote on Ms. Miers until the hearings and the vetting process has completed itself.  My criteria will be, again, judicial temperament, judicial competence and judicial philosophy.

"But I'm shocked at the sexism and double standard coming out of the far right.  All of a sudden they're saying that a woman who was able to become head of the Texas Bar Association isn't qualified. They're saying a woman who was one of the first to head up a major law firm with over 400 lawyers doesn't have intellectual heft.

"I find this a double standard.  I find it incredibly sexist, because one can only look at Judge Thomas in terms of intellectual heft.

"The other thing is, Ms. Miers and I are not too far apart generationally.  I know how hard it was to be able to get started in a career, trying to make it in law.

"We also know Sandra Day O'Connor, even though she was a top student at Stanford, became a legal secretary while Rehnquist was picked for a law firm. Harriet Miers is of our generation.  It was very hard to break the glass ceiling.  

"But it sounds like they want someone who is as elite as they are. And I think that the women need to say, let's judge her on her merits for the Court, but let's not have a double standard.

"And all of a sudden when you pick a woman - we know that we always have to be twice as good.  And obviously you have to be twice as good to satisfy the right wing.

"But again, I don't know how I will vote for her, but it will be on the criteria on which I judge every nominee."