What About Christopher Cox?

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox

Former Congressman Cox, now SEC Chairman, may be the perfect candidate. Consider:

• He's recently been through the congressional approval process, which Hugh Hewitt notes is a significant advantage.
• He's not one of the previously "anointed" group of conservative legal titans that many on the right were promoting. He is in some respects a "third way" nomination and his appointment would thus be face-saving for President Bush.
• He's never been a judge or an academic, so he's a little like Harriet Miers in that regard.
• The NRO Corner crowd evidently likes him. See, for example, this post on NRO by Quin Hilyer.
• Cox is a credentialed judicial conservative.
• He's telegenic as all get-out. Politically, the Democrats would have a terrible time trying to sink him.

The downside, as Hugh Hewitt told me when I called the show today, is that Cox has been so public with so many positions -- speeches, votes, op-ed pieces-- that the Democrats have a lot of ammunition to use in attacking him. Still, I wonder if maybe a fight like that would not be great for re-unifying and energizing the base and allowing the White House to seize some high ground again.

Here's a Wikipedia entry on Chris Cox. He went to college at USC, so Hugh will have to get over that, but otherwise he looks great. He even went to Harvard Law School, which is important to some people.

Something to think about.