Dear friends,
Since I left as counsel to the Senate Majority Leader in 2004, I have not been idle. In 2005, I formed the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters to press for the “constitutional option” to end extra-constitutional filibusters of judicial nominations, and then I chaired the Third Branch Conference through three Supreme Court nominations. Regrettably, I was the first publicly to voice and lead opposition to the nomination of Ms. Miers.
In the course of this work I was hired first by former Attorney General Ed Meese as a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, then as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and, in 2006, I served as a Senior Counsel for Immigration Policy for the Family Research Council. I formed an immigration coalition, Families First, and wrote an influential enforcement and legal reform proposal that made front page news.
In early 2006, the American Conservative Union awarded me the Ronald Reagan Award for my work on judicial nominations. This is considered the highest award of the conservative movement.
In late 2006, a call to a different form of service came and I accepted an offer by the Department of State to join our diplomatic mission in
Baghdad as a Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister’s legal office and the Government of Iraq on legislative process. After being vetted and getting my secret and ethics clearances, I put public advocacy aside and left for Baghdad in January 2007.
In the course of a year, I established the Office of Legislative Statecraft. This aimed at assisting the key points of the Iraqi legislative stream before and after Parliament. I was also singularly privileged to counsel the Iraq and Kurdistan Bars on reform of the Iraqi legal profession. I brought the boards of the two Bars together for the first time and brokered a written agreement between them to reconcile and walk together into the future.
I have come a long way since I started as a lawyer in the canyons of Wall Street and my 12 years of practice at white-shoe law firms as an international project finance attorney.
I want to thank all who have supported me, and also my detractors and opponents who made a lot of it all possible.
Please pray for those serving in Iraq, and the Iraqi people.
Best,
Manuel A. Miranda