A lot of people, all of them named President George W. Bush, are comparing Supreme Court nominee Harriet "The Curse of Michael" Miers to Justice Byron White, who served on the court from 1962 until his retirement in 1993. He died in 2002.

The comparison is largely due to the fact that White, like Miers, had never been a federal judge prior to his appointment. But the comparison ends there. White received a Rhodes scholarship and attended Hertford College at Oxford University. He graduated first in his class from Yale Law School. He clerked for Chief Justice Frederick M. Vinson. He went into private practice. He served as Deputy Attorney General. Byron White's record is closer to William Rehnquist's than to Harriet Miers'.