The first problem is Kagen herself. She would be a stretch to nominate to a District Court, let alone the Supreme Court. She has never been a judge and has barely been a lawyer. For her entire professional career she has been charging hard for radical leftists, whether for the Clinton/Obama administrations or as the Dean of Harvard. This absolutely no different than if George Bush had nominated Karl Rove for a spot on the Supreme Court.
Listening to her testimony, it seems as if she is hell bent on proving all the stereotypes about New England, ivy league elites true. She is actively trying to talk down and be condescending to members of Congress. She must know how truly meaningless this dog and pony show is.
It would be nice if she wasn't flat out lying and refusing to answer questions though. She was incredibly hostile to military recruiters at Harvard and tried like hell to keep them off campus, in direct violation of federal law. Somehow she spins this into her simply trying to protect all the gays and lesbians at Harvard who wanted to join the military. I'm sure there's tons of pro-military GLAAD members at Harvard.
In addition to that lie, she pretty much green lit government control of daily food intake by declining to state an opinion on whether government mandated diets were a proper use of the Commerce Clause. The good people of New York must be happy that their government is still free to save them from the evils of salt.
She was nominated to simply be an Obama representative in every case that comes before the court. It is a shameful choice that shows just how narcissistic Obama is. Say what you want about Sotomayor but at least she's a real life judge. Kagen is just a lackey and the fact that Obama would subject the country to her uneducated legal activism for the rest of her life just to smooth out the next 2 years of his administration is just selfish. Why not nominate her to replace General McChrystal while were at it? She's just as qualified for that job. This whole thing makes me wish he were simply nominating another Bader Ginsburg, Stevens or Souter. It's officially amateur hour in the Judicial Branch.
As bad as Kagen and Obama look in this whole deal, the real problem is Congress.
Since the atrocity that was the Bork confirmation hearings, this whole process has been completely delegitimized. The Senators involved certainly don't take it seriously, using the time to grandstand and bloviate. Why would any nominee actually answer any question knowing that the Chuck Schumers in the Senate will try and destroy them the minute it leaves their mouth? Poor Sam Alito's wife looked devastated during that sham of a hearing.
All to advance partisan politics. Both parties would happily confirm a Nazi fugitive if that's what the party leader wanted. The only instance where that didn't happen was when Bush tried to nominate Kagen the First (Harriett Miers) and conservatives went ballistic. Thank God they did or the Supreme Court could soon have been controlled by a Miers/Kagen axis of incompetence.
The real tragedy is that this problem of nominees not answering any questions is so easily fixed.
If a nominee stonewalls, Senators should just vote no. Eventually nominees will get the message and if they want the job they will start talking. Why this hasn't happened yet mystifies me. Congressman act like sticking with the President always helps them out come reelection time. Sticking with W sure didn't seem to help Republicans in 2006 or 2008 and sticking with Obama is going to result in a liberal Apocalypse come November. Yet everyday we hear more and more from Leahy, Schumer, et al. about how they are all in for Kagen.
If the Senators of the Judiciary Committee want to regain a little bit of the dignity and respect they have lost letting these nominees make fools of them, they need to grow some balls and play hardball with these potential justices. If they can't or won't do so, then we shouldn't even have these things, they are just an expensive waste of time. Go straight to the full vote and get it over with.
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good lord is that ever true. what a shame full spectacle
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