During her time as dean at Harvard, Ms. Kagan reversed Harvard’s existing policy and kicked the military out of the recruiting office, in violation of federal law. Her actions punished the military and demeaned our soldiers as they were courageous fighting for our country in two wars overseas. As someone who feels the burden of sending such young men and women into harm’s way, and who spent much time drafting and redrafting legislation to ensure military recruiters were treated fairly on campus, I can’t take this issue lightly.
—Sen. Jeff Sessions (pictured, right), the Alabama Republican, today in opening remarks at Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings [via]
whatever
What is Kagan on? She hasn’t changed her facial expression in two hours.
BenR
It’s really a pretty sad reflection on the intellectual abilities of our glorious rulers that they can’t even figure out that judges make rulings based on the law, not on their personal political preferences. What Kagan did was follow the law and support and promote existing policies. She was not acting out any personal hatred for the military, which she has never expressed, but doing her job.
It’s the great irony of the right wing that they insinuate that the ability of a judge to feel empathy is a weakness, and that impartiality is of utmost importance, and yet they get all weak in the knees when it comes to the military, and act as though judges (or bureaucrats, as Kagan then was) should automatically decide cases (or execute policy, as Kagan did) in their favor purely out of empathy and solidarity.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Sometimes I think that the acronym “DADT” is like a death ray to brain cells of most people. For not only is most of the gay and nongay world still under the delusion that ending DADT will automatically end discharges [and two of the Joint Chiefs thought it had ALREADY been repealed], but understanding of Kagan’s relationship to it seems to stop before she left her job as dean of Harvard’s Law School, which was kind of Kagan, Edition 1.0.
In May of 2009, in her new golden job as ObamaRahm’s Solicitor General, Kagan 1.0 was rebooted as Kagan 2.0, telling the Supreme Court that a lower court “PROPERLY UPHELD” Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in ruling against the lawsuit by DADT victim Jim Pietrangelo [the same arrested twice at the White House with Dan Choi].
Kagan’s 12-page brief insisted that the bar on gays serving openly is “RATIONALLY related to the government’s LEGITIMATE interest in military DISCIPLINE and COHESION.”
In other words, Kagan was saying that out gays HURT military discipline and cohesion….the SAME argument used repeatedly by John McShame and Elaine Donnelly and DADT architect Sam Nunn and the Marine Commandant who’s afraid straight Marines would rather die than share barracks with a gay Marine just like his predecessor 69-years before said the same thing about white Marines vs. “Negro” Marines and Gen. Write Congress & Tell Them Not to Repeal DADT Mixon and Gen. Gays Are Immoral Pace and the old dinosaur who blamed GENOCIDE in Bosnia on really nelly Dutch gay troops.
Troglodytes like Sessions and McShame can’t seem to understand that the latest amendment contains no guarantee of discharges ending, they only pay attention to Kagan 1.0. But it would be so nice if The Gays knew better, too.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Why do these asshat politicians even bother with the charade of being anything but party line hacks????
Sessions was being interview on the TVs today and can’t remember just who was interviewing him and he was discussint with Sessions his objections to Kagan’s lack of judicial experience. Sessions ranted on how important it was to have “experienced tenured jurists” on the SCOTUS. Then the reporter (who is currently my hero of the day) asked then why he was in favor of the elderly hobbit, Harriet Meyers that George W. Bush nominated, also with no judicial experience whom Sessions strongly supported. Sessions reply: “well, that was a different nominee”…….ARRRUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH
Tom
“As someone who feels the burden of sending such young men and women into harm’s way”
i laughed out loud.
really. just really.
Baxter
You can blame Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy for the current state of Supreme Court nomination hearings. In their borking of Bork, those two senators set the new ground rules for how hearings would be in the future: stupid, partisan circuses.
Our current “post-partisan” president wasn’t above that either: he voted no on both Alito and Roberts, even though he admitted that they were both more than qualified for the job. The Republicans are just repaying the favor.
whatever
@Baxter: Well, the one good thing is that the Repukes are looking like fools doing it.
The saltines on the committee, led by Jefferson “Beaureguard” Sessions, are bashing Thurgood Marshall, dog-whistling to their slack-jawed, inbred base.
Baxter
@whatever: I don’t disagree. I wish we could go back to the pre-Bork days when the Senate took the whole “advise and consent” thing seriously and accepted that elections have consequences. I’m just suggesting that it’s ridiculous to cry and moan about the mean old Republicans giving Kagan and Sotomayor a hard time, when the Democrats just finished doing the exact same thing to Alito and Roberts.
the crustybastard
@Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com: As Solicitor General, Kagan was acting as an attorney advocating the position of her client — the Obama Administration.
Why do you REFUSE to understand that an attorney can zealous advocate in court ideas that they personally find offensive?
If there is any “death ray to brain cells,” this issue is yours. Your relentlessly wrongheaded hammering on the issue makes you look like an idiot and a nutcase.
Jesus Tapdancing Christ, give it a rest.
Geoff M
@the crustybastard: Actually snorted at “jesus Tapdancing Christ”