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The Spectacle Blog
By choosing Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court pick, President Obama will likely avert a bitter confirmation battle over the summer. While there’s always a chance that something unknown can surface to derail the pick, all the key signals point to a smooth confirmation.
The most important sign of how contentious any pick is likely to be is to look at the immediate reaction of the opposition. The most infamous example of this would be Ted Kennedy’s tirade against Robert Bork on the Senate floor within an hour of the nomination, in which Kennedy declared that, “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, and schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of the Government…” (Video here). And after President Bush nominated Harriet Miers, conservative activists immediately went to work trying to torpedo the appointment. But the case of Kagan, Republicans have been pretty tame initially, taking a respectful wait and see approach.
While critics will take issue with Kagan’s lack of experience as a judge, the advantage from a confirmation standpoint is that she’s much more of a blank slate and won’t have as much of a paper trail to go through, depriving opponents of ammunition.
Ultimately, Kagan is likely to face relatively smooth sailing because Republicans know Obama will get a nominee one way or another. It’s unlikely that anybody who Obama nominates would be any better than Kagan, but it’s quite possible that were her nomination rejected, that he could nominate somebody much worse.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/05/10/why-kagan-is-likely-to-sail-to
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Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 11:21AM
Michelle Malkin » SCOTUS fight: Boxing Elena links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Siegfried X| 5.10.10 @ 11:30AM
"Kagan is likely to face relatively smooth sailing because Republicans know Obama will get a nominee one way or another"
Yet in a few months those Republican politicians will be asking for conservative votes and dollars in order to block Obama's appointments.
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 11:39AM
Twitter Trackbacks for Why Kagan is likely to sail to confirmation [spectator.org] o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 11:40AM
Um, I didn't want to say anything ealier, but I believe Ms. Kagan is Benny Hill's love child. Anybody else notice the Benny Hill-ish resemblance? Just sayin'.
Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 11:42AM
Tell me I'm wrong!
http://justwilliam1959.files.w.....y-hill.jpg
oppose Kagan| 5.10.10 @ 11:48AM
Sign a petition against Kagan:
http://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook page against Kagan:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....6051777335
Dennis D| 5.10.10 @ 11:55AM
Obama will choose a Supreme Court Justice and he has that right. We cannot expect him to select a conservative. While I am not thrilled with Kagan I am sure Obama could have picked worse. Hillary for example.
PCC| 5.10.10 @ 11:59AM
Reposting from an earlier Kagan thread:
Whatever you think of Diane Wood, it's no surprise that she (amongst others) did not get the nod.
It’s perfectly clear that if one didn’t attend law school at Harvard, Yale or Columbia, then forget it.
How the hell did John Paul Stevens slip through the net in 1974? Northwestern? It’s not even in New England! I bet Richard Nixon had something to do with it.
Can it possibly be true that in a country of 300,000,000 people and 200 ABA-approved law schools, only students who matriculated at one of those three institutions are qualified to sit on the highest court in the land? (Indeed, if it weren’t for Justice Ginsburg, who attended Harvard Law but graduated from Columbia, Harvard and Yale would have a clean sweep.)
I think there’s something really rotten in the state of Denmark.
Once we tick all of the gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation diversity boxes, how about nominating someone who went to law school somewhere south or west of 116th Street?
Teflon93| 5.10.10 @ 12:26PM
Typical weak GOP surrender on the judiciary.
Kagan will sail through because:
1. Senate Republicans are cowards;
2. Senate Republicans are fools.
They are cowards because they fear opposing Kagan due to her gender and alleged sexual orientation.
They are fools because they greatly overvalue a pat on the head from a leftist academic with no judicial experience. "Well, she's as good as we'll get from Obama...."
Which is precisely why you fight her nomination, expose her record, and rally support for Obama's nominees being DOA, just as Bush's were when Pat Leahy was running the show.
SeattleConservative| 5.10.10 @ 1:51PM
Well said! Forward this to all of those who have a Republican in the Senate.
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 12:28PM
The SCOTUS nomination heard ’round the world: Conservatives respond | The Daily Calle links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Derek Leaberry| 5.10.10 @ 12:51PM
Obama is picking Elena Kagan to 1) stir up his base by picking a homosexual and 2) to push the envelope in the Left's Gramscian attempt to regularize sexual perversion. The Republican Party, because they are not only cowards but out to sea on the culture wars. will go along quietly. I doubt Elena Kagan will have twenty votes against her, a demoralizing thought for conservatives.
Oldefarte| 5.10.10 @ 1:12PM
The one issue that could be used to attack her is unfortionately PERSONAL in nature, that of her sexual orientation. Barney Frank's outrageous personal behavior should be open season to political attacks but is not. As long as the argument is TRUTHFUL and not fabricated, it should be able to be placed upon the table of discussion, but liberals will raise the red flag of HOMOPHOBISM, SEXISM, etc if her CLOSETED SEXUAL ORIENTATION [and the degree of its influence upon her SC decisions] is questioned; but Republicans should have the ability to disect her sexual philosophy as a reasoned basis for what her opinions would be regarding cases involving homosexual matters!!!!!!!!!!
Mimi| 5.10.10 @ 3:23PM
GOD,.... O-F I hope not!!! ...Im looking for her thoughts on individual LIBERTY, and CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The "O" being so slick may be hoping that the Party of NO will go down the sex orientation road and make fool of themselves prior to NOVEMBER. Maybe he figures we'll fight to the MAX on this nomination and threw her out there as a sacrificial lamb. It is of great importance for the country's sake we stall........ stall...... and more stall. Sen. LEAHEY (VT) say's...." She should be confirmed by Labor - Day." Hmmm....that's 57 days before election day Nov. 2! The Party of "NO" should become the party of HELL-NO!!!! March/09 ON confirmation for SOLICITOR GENERAL ,.....A Senator c/o" Being unduly evasive in answering questions from Judiciary Commitee" He voted against her, that was ...... none other than...Arlan Specter. A law proffessor fron the Univ. of Colorado Said: " We have nothing to judge her on" That was Paul Campos. Ed Whelan of the conservative ETHICS and PUBLICPolicy Center.. Had this to say: "Appears to on gay rights issue" "She's let her policy preferences WARP her legal views" Warp her legal views is my problem, not the ....Gay issue. Anyway if we could hold the LEFT back on this and just expect that the Jan. political climate will be better for us, the nation and for LIBERTY!!!
mMimi| 5.10.10 @ 3:42PM
oops......I got these quotes , and there others, on today's POLITICO. To be clear: Elana should not be or any nominee, JUDGED on race, gender, black, purple, hispanic or any of those.....Only on jurisdiction of the founding documents and strict interpretation of the CONSTITUTION!!!!
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 4:34PM
The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Why Kagan is Likely to Sail … capital universi links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 5:38PM
The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Why Kagan is Likely to Sail … links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 6:32PM
List Building Commandments for Success and Cash | List Building Blogger - List Buildi links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pete| 5.10.10 @ 9:32PM
I think she a love child of Uncle Fester from the Adam's Family. Photoshop off the hair and they are practically twins.
The fact that she has not come out of the closet is going to be interesting. It will also tend to PO gays that have come out, and if Obama was looking for a bounce from them it may back-fire.
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 9:47PM
The Ultimate Elena Kagen Blog Round Up » All American Blogger - Stopping America's Ma links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Nate| 5.10.10 @ 11:30PM
I'm not sure why you can't just point out that Kagan has also received extremely high praise from several conservative jurists. Is there some reason you can't do this? Why the bad faith?