Kagan Nomination Leaves Some Longing on the Left

[IndianaGreen]

Kagan Nomination Leaves Some Longing on the Left

By PETER BAKER
Published: May 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — The selection of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be the nation’s 112th justice extends a quarter-century pattern in which Republican presidents generally install strong conservatives on the Supreme Court while Democratic presidents pick candidates who often disappoint their liberal base.

Ms. Kagan is certainly too liberal for conservatives, who quickly criticized her nomination on Monday as a radical threat. But much like every other Democratic nominee since the 1960s, she does not fit the profile sought by the left, which hungers for a full-throated counterweight to the court’s conservative leader, Justice Antonin Scalia.

In many ways, this reflects how much the nation’s long war over the judiciary has evolved since Ms. Kagan was a child. While the American left back then used the Supreme Court to promote social change in areas like religion, race and abortion, today it looks at it more as a backstop to defend those rulings. The right, on the other hand, remains aggrieved and has waged an energetic campaign to make the court an agent of change reversing some of those holdings.

Along the way, conservatives have largely succeeded in framing the debate, putting liberals on the defensive. Sonia Sotomayor echoed conservatives in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings last year by rejecting the idea of a “living” Constitution that evolves, and even President Obama recently said the court had gone too far in the past. While conservatives have played a powerful role in influencing Republican nominations, liberals have not been as potent in Democratic selections.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/us/politics/11nominees.html?hp

[NJmaverick]

1. and it leaves others on the left very happy

[IndianaGreen]

2. DLC is NOT the Left, unless you are referring to one of Mussolini's nipples

[Jennicut]

4. Not everyone who may support her is DLC.

[NJmaverick]

7. We are not talking about the DLC we are talking about liberals that are very

happy with the pick

[jenmito]

5. +1

[ProSense]

3. Who cares, as long as

Al likes her?

The problem with Kagan's detractors is that their arguments are lame. When challenged, the only thing they can say is they don't know enough about her. That's what confirmation hearings are for.

[opihimoimoi]

6. this is why we need 62 or 65 Democratic Senators... the real kind, ..no blue ones

and the House too

Then we can really do as them Pubs did to us and America....RAM our noms down their throats.....

The politization of the Court cost us 8 years of Bush and countless lives lost or ruined....the Righties on the Court did not have America in mind when they ruled as they did during the recount in 2000

The Court supposed to have whats best for the Nation/people when deciding...as it is...the Court is sullied....them righties are there for a long time

and this is not acceptable.....the results of their tenure has been devastating .....and for many....Fatal